Bonds (Alt Universe Story)
by TheFemaleReviewer
Summary: Thanks to another awesome request from a fan, I'm back on my Naruto and Sasuke vibe writing another adventure story! In this alternate universe, instead of leaving Naruto at the Final Valley, Sasuke brings him along to Orochimaru's hideout. But... Why? And what's wrong with Sasuke's curse mark? With exciting cameos from all kinds of characters, you WON'T wanna miss this escapade!
1. Chapter 1

**Bonds**

Author's Note: I had a lot of fun writing this requested story from Kidagirl8 and I hope you like it!

[Imagine that Naruto unlocked a new power during his fight with Sasuke at the Final Valley that then caused a WORLD of unprecedented complications...and not just for the black haired Uchiha but for our blonde boy wonder also. Read along to figure out how they solve this "new power" or if they even solve it, and who they end up running into along the way! (Don't worry, the power he unlocks makes sense.)]

**Orochimaru**

_These arms... Dammit..._

Completely devoid of feeling, I stared at the useless logs in the mirror. The light above me flickered dimly.

_Coming up with an idea like the Reaper Death Seal... Of course, only Hiruzen would._

I cocked my head as I eyed the forbidden jutsu scroll on the medical table next to me. A demon with a purple face and a knife in its mouth was drawn above extensive directions explaining how to enact the reverse jutsu to the reaper death seal.

_Then again, I should thank him for reminding me of that seal... Now, I can begin studying it. And if everything goes as planned, I should have my arms back in no time..._

The door swung open. I turned to see Kabuto entering my private lab. He glanced down at the medical table, eyes zeroing in on an axe that just so happened to lay next to the scroll and he smirked.

"Already giving up on immortality, I see." He said before plopping down in the chair adjacent to me.

"I was reading the scroll." I said, narrowing my eyes as he leaned back in the chair and kicked his sandals up on desk, scattering my papers.

"Hey, hey, it's fine, Lord Orochimaru. Whatever you think about in your spare time is cool with me." he said, angling his head back to toss some chips into his mouth. "Just make sure you write me into your will first."

"You've gotten extremely comfortable around me lately." I noted.

He continued eating the chips, opting to say nothing.

_And this one clearly believes that because of my minor set-back, he's free to do whatever he wants._

He pushed his glasses further up on his nose.

_But he isn't wrong. I could still kill him any time I wanted to but that would harm me more than help me. _

"Oh! I almost forgot the reason I even came in here." He said, tossing the empty chip wrapper to the floor. "The girl sensed Sasuke on the way."

I raised my eyebrows.

"He came even without the Sound Four and Kimimaro." I stated. "As I expected."

"The girl sensed something else, too." He added.

_Something else? Something like what...?_

"Explain." I told him.

Kabuto snapped his fingers.

"Hey, Karin! Get in here!"

A quiet, slightly depressed looking girl pushed the door open slowly and walked into the laboratory. Her long red hair was dirty and messy, flowing around her shoulders and doing nothing except to make the rags she wore as clothes look more appalling.

"Tell him." Kabuto said.

She avoided looking me in the eyes, none of them were brave enough to do that, instead, she looked at my feet and spoke quietly.

"The boy... The one from the Chunin Exams..."

"Kabuto, weren't there many boys in the Chunin Exams? Or...am I mistaken?" I asked him.

Kabuto shrugged.

"You know, now that I think about it, it probably _was_ only girls in that exam... No one there had any balls anyway."

I snickered.

Karin began again.

"The boy...with a blue shirt." She specified. "You call him Sasuke-kun."

"Oh,_ that_ boy. Right... Right..." I said, smirking. "Go on."

"He's approaching..." she revealed. "In company with a secondary chakra."

"What secondary chakra?"

"A...strange one." She said. "It feels weird. Like it has two sides."

_Two sides? That description would probably best fit a...Jinchuriki. _

Kabuto gave me a knowing look as Karin, finally, raised her head and looked up at me.

"But... Sasuke's chakra feels double sided that way, too, now."

"Great, observation, Karin. So, now, there's _four _chakra's approaching... It must be the end of the world." Kabuto joked.

"Karin, leave immediately and direct Sasuke to this hideout." I ordered.

Interest filled her eyes. Interest I'd never seen on her before. She nodded and left quickly.

"You think she's actually going to come back?" Kabuto said.

I smirked at him.

"As if she has anywhere else to go." I told him. "That's the key to this entire set up, Kabuto. It's loneliness. All of these ones, every single one of them, have no one waiting for them to return anywhere except here. That is why they always find their way here."

"Mmm. Like Sasuke?" he asked me.

I frowned.

"Sasuke _has _someone to return to... And it seems he's brought that person with him."

"So, you think it's Naruto, too, huh?"

"Who else would it be?"

Kabuto laughed.

"Didn't you say something like 'Naruto is the one person Sasuke can't be allowed to stay around'?" He reminded me.

"How ironic." I said, turning. "But I am curious... What provoked Sasuke to carry him all the way here?"

"I can think of one good reason." Kabuto said, sneering. "Though, I initially didn't think Sasuke was into that sort of thing."

I eased myself back into my chair.

"How indecent of a joke." I replied as Kabuto snickered.

"Well, he better not be expecting us to heal him. We're not running a medical wing." He said, then he seemed to ponder something. "Though, with the amount of people we're taking on these days, we could be considered an orphanage."

I smiled.

"And Hiruzen Sensei told me I'd never become a philanthropist." I remarked. "I've fed and clothed more children than all the five nations put together."

"Yeah, after you tortured them."

I looked at Kabuto, who immediately, most likely sensing my animosity at his word choice, jumped back into line. He threw his hands up.

"Sorry, Lord Orochimaru, I was just making an observation!"

The door swung open then, loudly and quite rudely as a boy, drenched from the rain, walked into the room with another boy, equally as drenched, hanging on his back.

_Like I expected. Sasuke...you've brought Naruto to me._

Naruto's head lolled on Sasuke's shoulder and his body was completely limp. He was knocked clean out.

"Must've been some fight, huh?" Kabuto asked, looking at the holes in Naruto's jacket and the gashes and bruises on his face and arms.

Sasuke completely ignored him. His eyes were solely on mine.

"What did you do to him?" he asked me.

Before I could even question his question, he began speaking again.

"His hand." Sasuke said, motioning toward it. "It has a curse seal on it. I thought you were only after _me_. Why did you drag him into it, too?"

_Curse seal?_

That peaked my interest more than anything else that day.

"Kabuto, clear the table."

He lifted the scroll and the axe and the other miscellaneous things I had gathered atop of it and placed them on bookshelves or chairs. Sasuke leaned toward the table, laying Naruto down and positioning him for me. I walked over and as I did, Kabuto, quite literally becoming my second pair of hands, grabbed Naruto's hand and turned it over for me.

On his palm, was a curse seal in black ink. But the symbol was strange. It wasn't a symbol I'd ever seen or created before.

I turned to Sasuke and as I did, just as quickly, Kabuto grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and pulled his neck at an angle showing me his mark.

_This symbol has also changed..._

"Reverse the seal. Quickly." I told Kabuto.

He nodded and pushed his glasses up, becoming solidly serious and meticulous just like the medical genius he was. He did the hand signs and, with electric pulses bursting from his fingertips, he pressed upon Naruto's palm, causing his arm to jump. The seal still remained. Kabuto did the signs again, created the static and did it again but to no success.

_Why is this seal so stubborn? If it's just an accidental dopple-ganger sprung off from Sasuke's mark, we should be able to remove it..._

Kabuto continued.

"You never explained why he has a seal. And what are you doing to him?" Sasuke asked as he stared from the other side of the table. "What's happening?"

I opened my mouth. Thinking I was going to answer, he stopped speaking, only to be caught off guard by a flood of snakes that spurt from deep in my body, ran through my mouth, and wrapped around his torso.

He grimaced, writhing futilely against the wet, wild reptiles. The snakes wrapped around his body again and again, keeping him firmly coiled, contained and quiet, seeing as how they also covered his mouth.

"It's like an eight trigram seal." A small voice said.

I turned, looking at Karin who no one had noticed returned with Naruto and Sasuke.

"Or...no... It's... It's even stronger than that." She said as she looked on.

_Well, she's an Uzumaki. Of course she'd be familiar with seals..._

I turned to the unconscious blonde haired boy on the table, watching him closely.

_But then, does that mean that this child...!?_

"If you know how to reverse it then come here." Kabuto told her.

She shook her head.

"You need a key." She said. "For seals like the eight trigram and stronger, you need a key to unlock it."

It irritated me that, even for a split second, she thought she was teaching me something. I was completely aware of that. Though, I wouldn't have classified the seal as an Eight Trigram one.

_The one on his stomach... The one I disturbed before was an Eight Trigram. But this one... It looks exactly like a curse mark style but..._

But the symbol in the middle looked like a swirl of miniature dots...or... a ball of moving wind. And the three-dot mark on Sasuke's neck had come together to look more like some kind of flame ball.

_Perhaps it's the amount of chakra within the seal that is making Karin classify it as that. But if the seal was even stronger than an eight trigram..._

But as Kabuto continued trying to reverse the seal, using a rather painful series of muscle and skin shearing, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Sasuke jerked where the snakes were keeping him tied up. Initially I hadn't been paying much attention to his movements, until...

"Mmmmffhh!" He tried to say.

_Is he reacting to this boy's injuries?_

I snapped my fingers.

"Kabuto, enough." I said.

Kabuto stopped. With the amount of times he had tried to electrically revert the mark, the boy's hand and wrist were both almost singed but the mark still remained.

"Use the scalpel and _cut_ it off." I ordered.

He smirked.

"And I thought_ I_ was being careless." He remarked.

"Do as I say."

My eyes narrowed on Sasuke where the snakes were beginning to wrap around his eyes.

_Now I can make sure Sasuke-kun doesn't just have an abnormal amount of empathy. If he can't see him, he can't feel for him..._

Kabuto's waited a couple a seconds and then, on my command, his hand swiped across Naruto's stabbing into the back of his hand. A single tear slipped from underneath his closed eyelid just as Sasuke's hand balled into a fist, fingers flexing and unflexing.

"I haven't seen you smile that widely since we got Kimimaro." Kabuto mumbled.

"Prepare the laboratory connected to the south cell chamber, Kabuto." I said. "And take Sasuke and Karin there."

"Karin, too?" He asked.

"Do as I say." I repeated, having one of my snakes hiss at him appropriately.

"You don't have to get all edgy..." He said, raising his hands.

He grabbed Karin's arm, and motioned to the snakes which were still coiled around Sasuke and left the room.

I stared at the boy lying on the table.

"It must've been then... Back then..."

I could visualize it my head, the moment that I launched for Sasuke and that weak girl standing next to him and inserted my fangs into his neck, implanting the seed.

But little did I know this idiotic boy hadn't been caught up long enough by the snake I'd sent to swallow him. I didn't know how he'd gotten out of it so quickly but he was there, pushing me to the side and pulling Sasuke from my grasp.

The curse mark is a very time conscious jutsu. Even though I'd implanted the curse, because of the idiot, I wasn't able to properly seal it. If it isn't sealed properly for a long time, it will fade, reducing to nothing, in which case, I could've easily implanted the seed in Sasuke again and sealed it properly. On the contrary, if the curse is sealed but sealed by someone else, that person is then able to insert whatever will they want into the jutsu. The will I had given Sasuke, the will of ambition, and avarice and pride most likely slowly began to be overshadowed by the new will.

_If I don't act quickly, Sasuke will be out of my control._

I stared down at the blonde haired boy.

_And the worst part is... I can't even just do away with this ridiculously idiotic set-back._

"Sasuke and Karin are locked in their new rooms." Kabuto reported as he pushed the door open.

He came to my side and we both looked down at Naruto.

"Should I kill him?" he asked, raising a knife in the form of chakra. "The jutsu will disappear if we do that."

"I considered it momentarily but no." I told him. "We have no idea how strong the seal was that Naruto put into Sasuke. We don't even know what _will_ he put into it. In the worst case scenario, if we kill Naruto, Sasuke may snap and go into shock or rage or...even commit suicide. There are endless possibilities."

"And we can't play around with this one because you don't have enough time to kill them both and go search for a better body host." Kabuto added.

"Precisely." I replied.

_Or better yet, I doubt that there _is _a better body host for me than Sasuke... This is just a small unexpected predicament. I _will _have him. And I refuse to stop until I do._

"You told Karin to spy on him I presume?" I asked.

"I don't even have to tell her." He said. "Next to Kimimaro and I, Karin is the most trustworthy of your children, isn't she?"

_Good..._

"I have to check to see if Sasuke's still under my control." I told him. "And if he is, I must force him to separate himself from Naruto permanently."

"How are we going to do that?"

I looked down at the unconscious boy on the table.

"These two are like oil and water... If what I'm thinking is correct,_ we_ won't have to do a thing."

"But until then, we're going to keep trying to remove the mark, right?"

"Precisely." I responded. "Come. Let's move him to the laboratory connected to the south chamber."

**Sasuke**

I could hear the screaming in my head all day.

_AHHHHHHHHH!_

It was constant.

_NGHH! GURAAAHHH!_

I could sense... Pain. Confusion. Fear.

_UGHAAAHHH!_

And something else... A sense of longing... Longing for something or someone.

But there wasn't anything I could do about it. Even if I wanted to, which I didn't.

_It's all Itachi's fault. All of it. If he hadn't done what he did, I wouldn't need this power so desperately. And Naruto wouldn't be in the situation he's in either. _

I'd been stuck up in that room for days. The girl I was stuck with marked the days. Some kind of weird nervous tic.

"How can you even tell when the sun rises or sets from here?" I finally asked her, simply to stop myself from going mad.

She stared at me for a second, expression easing into an expansion of dumbfoundedness.

"I don't really know... I guess I can just feel it." She responded.

And that was the day I realized they locked me up with a crazy person. Literally locked me up, too, because there was no knob on our side of the iron wrought door. There was a single candle in the room. And old, cold brown and green stone brick walls. The ground was a mixture of concrete and mud. The only things that didn't look completely depressing were the beds. And even they struggled hard to make you feel the hopelessness. Two were connected by chain and as I picked the one closest to the candle, she decided to pick the one connected to mine. And that was where we remained for the majority of our time there. I watched the girl mark day five even though it felt to me like a month had passed.

My absence of time was most likely also encouraged by the fact that I didn't sleep much. I had tried to sleep the first couple of minutes I got in there but I woke up sweating from some nightmare I couldn't even remember. After that, even thinking about sleep bothered me. I decided it must be the surroundings. Forced to live in a dungeon cage with your only company a girl who did nothing but mark the walls and stare at you. Interestingly enough though, _she_ seemed to sleep just fine.

The heavy, solid iron door groaned and creaked up loudly. Both of us sat up expectantly. The candle flickered with the whoosh of wind and fizzed out. A shadow stood in the doorway, illuminated into a soft silhouette by the dim lanterns in the hallway.

"Are you ready to train?" Asked the voice.

Just from the drawl of the tone, I knew it was Orochimaru. I was slightly surprised that he hadn't just sent that lying idiot with the glasses.

_I've _been _ready to train, you asshole... But you've been bent on keeping me in here for days._

"Where's Naruto?" I decided to ask him.

"Naruto, Naruto, Naruto..." He sighed. "Lengthen your vocabulary."

"Where is he?" I persisted.

"Who knows." Orochimaru asked, shrugging exaggeratedly. "For all you know, he might already have died."

I stared at him. Moments passed. The girl rustled in the sheets near me. He began to chuckle sourly.

"Don't fret, Sasuke-kun. Your beloved Naruto is in the training courtyard, safe and sound."

_Yeah, right. How could he be safe or sound? Screaming all day and night like that..._

"You think I'm lying?" Orochimaru asked.

I looked at him head on and said nothing. Strangely, he gave me a curious look but it was only for a moment and then he turned around.

"Come. You as well, Karin."

"Where?" I asked.

He grabbed the door knob, not saying anything, and with the door open, I didn't have much choice but to follow him. Past the rows and rows of doors just like mine with iron doors and bars on the only windows. Some of the doors had small hands on them, fingers curled around the bars, others were silent, like whatever life inside had died a long time ago. The only light in the hall flickered, occasionally buzzing out.

_What kind of hell did I sign up for?_

Karin barely seemed to notice at all. She walked through the halls staring straight ahead like she didn't have a care in the world.

_I wonder how long you have to be here to become as empty as she probably is..._

As far as I was concerned, she and all the rest of them were probably born in these dungeons and would die there, too. Serving him.

_But not me. He may think I want to become apart of this ridiculous sob story but he's got the wrong one..._

I looked up as he strode ahead of me.

_But I still can't figure it out. What is this guy planning? Is he after Naruto? Is that why he implanted that mark? And when did he even get the time to do it? Was it at the chunin exams like mine or later? Why did it take so long to show up?_

We continued walking through the damp, dank passage ways, past more and more dark and dusty rooms. Because of my lack of freedom, I wasn't at all familiar with the place. But I didn't have time to feel apprehensive about that, I was getting a really strange feeling about something else. Like every step I took led me closer and closer to...something.

Something positive.

When I closed my eyes I imagined my home...before my brother destroyed it.

Something peaceful.

In any case, I was sensibly surprised as we jumped up through a narrow hole in the ceiling and landed...outside.

_Outside... It's been a long time. _

Chirping birds blessed my ears, flowing wind kissed my skin and smells like flowers and fresh water soothed my nostrils.

_I must've been sensing that we were nearing outside. _

"Sasuke!"

I turned, sunlight flooding my vision as a brightly colored haired and dressed boy writhed in Kabuto's arms.

"If you keep going on like this, I'm going to have to detach the tendons in your legs. Remember how that felt?" Kabuto threatened.

"Let me near Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, clearly not listening at all.

Orochimaru ignored him, turning toward me.

"Sasuke what did you hope to gain from coming here?"

I didn't even hesitate before I responded.

"Power."

Naruto continued struggling, my eyes drifted toward his.

"You brought Naruto here under the assumption that I chose him in addition to you and gave him a curse mark." He went on. "But that is incorrect."

_...What?_

"That mark he has... That clone curse mark of yours isn't my doing." He smiled, in an unhinged sort of way. "We've been trying to remove it for three days straight and haven't made any sort of progression."

My eyes lowered to Naruto's hand, where the skin was a raw red.

"But I can't train you with this complication." Orochimaru told me. "It posses all sorts of threats that are incredibly...inconceivable at the moment."

That caught my attention more than anything.

"So I'm going to be stuck in a dungeon indefinitely?!" I retorted.

His eyes shined, feeding off my outburst.

"Perhaps not." He said. "Naruto is the only person standing in your way... What do _you _think you should do?"

_Standing...in my way...?_

I turned, looking directly into Naruto's eyes. My gaze made him struggle harder.

_I can't let anyone stand in my way..._

"I want to be next to Sasuke!" Naruto shouted again.

"Kabuto, let him go." Orochimaru ordered.

Kabuto shrugged, letting Naruto go, who immediately sprinted over to me.

I raised my eyebrows, feeling the sun beating on my back, roasting my desperately pale skin and took in his ragged appearance, his clothes were torn and dirty, and his cheeks were slightly drawn like they hadn't been feeding him well. There, in the warm atmosphere surrounding us, I slightly felt for him...

_You stupid idiot... Getting mixed into all of this._

He outstretched his hands, running for me like there was no other place he'd rather be.

"Dobe-" I began.

He cocked his fist back, plunging it into the side of my face as hard as he could, and off guard, I stumbled back a few steps, almost tripping.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" I exclaimed, hand shooting up to my face.

"That's for trying to leave the village, you bastard!" He shouted at me. "Now you've gone and gotten us both kidnapped and held hostage by this snake weirdo!"

Orochimaru raised his eyebrows, seemingly amused by Naruto's declaration.

I gritted my teeth.

"Maybe if you weren't a weak, worthless usuratonkachi, you could've stopped me and neither of us would be in this situation." I retorted.

"How is it MY fault!?" He spouted, then he frowned, pointing at me. "You tried to KILL me and then you said it's because you're my best friend! What kind of shit is that?!"

"Well, why don't we settle it right now, then so I kick your ass back to that Konoha where you belong."

"More like I'll kick _your_ ass back to Konoha!" Naruto shouted. "Then we can stop all this and go see Sakura-chan and Ramen-chan again!"

"You're on!"

I dug in the deepest recesses for my chakra. As soon as I discovered that I could transform into another being when I used my Curse Mark Power, I was heavily interested in how to keep it up. I hadn't been just sitting around while I was stuck in that cage with that girl. Even if I hadn't enacted it again, I knew I could do it again, I had to. I wouldn't lose to him.

Naruto dashed toward me Rasengan in hand, and seemingly using a bit of that weird red chakra he had. I braced myself, tapping into the power, and releasing it. I could feel it engulfing me... Filling me. Consuming me.

But only momentarily, then fire came, shooting down my body in a light strip and the brownish dark purple skin I'd had with the handed wings and my long hair, stuttered...and began to fade out.

_No! Wait..._

I struggled to contain my transformation but it was like grasping water. I was failing quickly, and Naruto continued plunging toward me, facial expression moving from determination to...something else.

_Is that..._

His mouth opened, it seemed like he was yelling something.

_...Fear?_

Then, he was next to me, skidding to a stop to avoid hitting me straight on with his Rasengan because I hadn't even done well enough to enact a Chidori and as I watched him, watched the swirling ball of wind near my face, sparks of lighting shot up all around me and the world took on a strange purple hue momentarily as I began to see sparks of blue swirling inside everyone.

_Their chakra?_

And my neck felt hot, so I reached for it...but the moment I touched it, the spot my curse mark was, everything vanished, and I fell to my knees.

"Sasuke..." Naruto said, Rasengan fizzing out. "Are you okay?"

He kneeled next to me, grabbing my arm.

"I'm fine." I said, pushing him off.

_...What just happened to me?_

"Orochimaru-sama, did you see-"

"I saw it."

I looked up, watching as Kabuto and Orochimaru stared at us. They both had smirks on but behind that...there was something else.

_What did they see?_

But as the moment passed, Orochimaru began to chuckle.

"Sasuke, you can have your power... But first, we must get over this hurdle." He told me, then looked over at Naruto. "Tell us what you did to tamper with the mark or kill each other with the sole survivor being the successor."

My ears perked.

"You'd chose _him_?" I asked.

"I like geniuses." He told me. "And with the way things are going, he just may be a prodigy afterall..."

_This can't be happening._

"Until then, all three of you will return to that cell." He banished us.

I could hear the iron door slamming shut in my face before we even got back down into the hideout.

**Naruto**

I watched as Sasuke snatched a piece of chalk out of the hands of the girl named Karin and used it to drag a line across the partly muddy ground.

"This is my side." He said, pointing behind him to his bed.

"And that's yours." He pointed to the bed I was sitting on, directly across from his.

"If you step even a toe across this line, I'll massacre you." He threatened.

I crossed my arms.

"You don't scare me, Sasuke. I can do whatever I want."

His arm pulsed with electricity, but instead of the usual light blue aura of the Chidori, it seemed to have a purplish tinge.

"I dare you."

We stared each other down. It was silent. Karin leaned over and grabbed the chalk back out of Sasuke's hand and began dragging it across the wall. That distracted me.

"...What are you doing?" I asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" She replied.

I squinted.

"Making a line."

She sighed, moving backwards so I could see the multiple lines she had already made.

"Making... Lines...?" I guessed.

"I'm marking the days." She stated, then she looked me up and down, like she was seeing me for the first time and then turned to Sasuke. "Is your girlfriend retarded?"

"He isn't anything to me!" Sasuke said, not taking his eyes off me as he pulled himself up onto his bed.

I walked near Karin, trying to get a good look at the lines.

"Why did you put a diagonal one across the others?"

She continued staring at me weirdly.

"It's like saying 'five'."

I put my hands behind my head.

"Then why didn't you just write five?"

She began to write out some characters.

"It takes longer, see?"

_Is that really five? Crap... I knew skipping all those writing classes when I was younger would mess me up one day._

Karin turned to Sasuke.

"He can't read?" She asked him.

"He's an idiot." Sasuke replied simply, leaning down on his elbow and picking at the sheets.

"Hey, take that back, Sasuke! I'm smart enough to know when someone's insulting me!"

"How do you sign your name then?" Karin wondered.

I blinked at her.

"I...never _had_ to sign my name."

"What kind of ninja do they create in that crackpot village?" She muttered. "Sounds like living in such a stupid place is just a waste of time."

Sasuke smirked.

"Konoha isn't a waste of time!" I argued. "It's just that...I'm different. Everyone else knows all that stuff just fine."

"So then what's wrong with you?" Karin asked.

Long, lonely nights with nothing except shadows and the wind whistling through my empty apartment to keep me company... No photographs on the wall. No antiques in the hall. No plants. No animals. No voices. Nothing... Nothing except a lot of time clinging to my own shadows.

I grinned.

"Nothing at all! I'm a loyal ninja of that 'crackpot village' you're talking about. So shut your mouth!" I told her. "Because you're talking to the future Hokage!"

"Hokage?" She asked.

"That's right!" I proclaimed. "And then everyone in the village will put my face up on the mountain and have to acknowledge me."

Sasuke snorted.

"You wanna fight about it?" I asked turning to him.

He rolled over in bed, ignoring me.

"A leader of a village who can't even write his own name?" Karin challenged me. "You're dumber than you look."

She turned back to the wall.

"At least know how to do that much before you go around preaching..."

She began writing the characters out, and as she finished the first one. My eyes locked on it.

_I think I know what that says..._

"Uzumaki?"

She froze, slowly turning to eye me with those deep reddish pink eyes she had.

"What?"

"You just wrote Uzumaki, right?" I asked, pointing.

"How would_ you_ know that, illiterate boy?"

"I can't write my name but I know what it looks like. Uzumaki..." I clarified. "That's my name."

A look of pure astonishment crossed her face, and then it sunk into a sullen confusion at the unfairness of it all.

"Oh, great! The idiot's _my_ brother..." She mumbled, flopping down onto her bed.

"Brother?" Sasuke and I asked at the same time.

"I'm Uzumaki Karin." She told us. "The last living survivor of the Uzumaki Clan positioned near the Village Hidden in the Grass."

_Last survivor?_

"Lord Orochimaru found me when our clan was ambushed by a nomadic clan and burned to the ground."

Sasuke sat up, looking at her like he was incredibly intrigued.

"They let you live?" He asked.

"No, I sensed them coming and ran." She said, flashing him a smile. "I'm a sensor."

That revelation didn't seem to surprise Sasuke at all.

"...I see." He said.

But my mind was going an entirely different direction.

"So... You're really part of my family?"

Karin gave me a disgusted look.

"No. Your chakra feels dirty." She said, wrinkling her nose.

She looked me up and down again, eyes settling on my bright blonde hair that opposed her hot reddish pink hair.

"It's your probably because you're a half-breed." She said.

"Half-breed?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes, clearly getting tired of explaining everything to me...like how everyone did.

"It means one of your parents isn't of Uzumaki blood." She said. "You're probably more like a distant cousin, if even that."

_But that's fine. If I know one of my parents' heritage, that means I can figure out who they were. I could end up actually finding..._

"Are there more Uzumaki clans?" I asked. "In the other villages?"

"Why?" She asked, still wrinkling her nose at me.

I grinned widely.

"Cause I wanna find them!" I told her. "I could find people like me!"

She stared at me for a moment and then sighed, turning from me.

"When I was really young, my family got word that our clan was most likely the only full, pure blood one still roaming around." She said. "You and I... It's very possible we're the last ones."

_...What?_

She got back up into her bed. I stood there in the center of the room, feet only a centimeter away from crossing Sasuke's line.

_Well... It doesn't matter much._

I turned, going over to my own bed with the yellowish-brown stained sheets and rusted, red iron stands.

_I never honestly thought about finding bits of my family before anyway... I figured that..._

I sat on the edge of my bed.

_That if they left me all alone in Konoha for everyone to hate me, they must hate me the same too._

I clasped my hands together.

_But what if they just lost me, or something? What if I could find someone who knows who I really am? Where I really belong? _

"Does being half-breed mean I wouldn't belong there?" I found myself asking.

Karin was lying in the bed with her face in the pillow and she sighed, probably wanting to drop the whole conversation altogether.

"Normally, it would but..." She raised her head. "You seem to have some of our power, so..."

"Power?" I asked.

"I'm done talking to you." She said. "Figure it out yourself."

Sasuke, who had decided to lay back down, turned his head toward her.

"Karin, explain." He ordered.

And just like every girl who ever met Sasuke, she didn't hesitate before she obeyed him.

"Uzumaki's are known for being really good sensors, having a lot of vitality, and being Fuinjutsu geniuses." She explained, eyes never leaving his.

"I don't get it!" I said. "What's Fuinjutsu? And what's vitality?"

"Ughhh!" She groaned. "Vitality, meaning we all live really, really long lives."

"Like until we're a thousand!?" I exclaimed.

She glared at me, choosing to go on and ignore my shout.

"And Fuinjutsu is the art of sealing. Like sealing techniques in scrolls or even on people." She told me. "Our clan is the one who created that art, so naturally, we're the best at it."

_Sealing...people...?_

"I can't really do sealing too well, so I shine in sensory arts. But it's obvious you're a sealing type, isn't it?" She asked. "That's the whole reason why Orochimaru's interested in you."

It took a while but slowly everything started to fall into place. I turned my right hand over, palm up and looked at the whirl seal still etched there. Sometimes it disappeared, but when I flexed my chakra, kneading it, it returned full force.

"So... Orochimaru wasn't lying?" I asked. "I... _I _did this...?"

_But how? How could I do a technique I've never done before?_

My eyes slowly drifted up to Sasuke's who was glaring at me silently. I found myself grinning back at him as he turned away from me.

"It's easy then..." I said to no one in particular, since Karin had pulled the sheets over her head and Sasuke rolled over. "I'll just tell him I don't know how I did it."

I kicked my sandals off and lay down in my bed. The dust that kicked up made me sneeze until my nose hurt. As I lay there, I found myself wondering what Sakura and Kakashi Sensei and everyone were doing. I worried about Ero-Senin and Grandma Tsunade. I worried about all the people that slowly had become my friends.

_My friends..._

But being near Sasuke, the friend I was still dangerously close to losing, took the edge off my worry for them.

_They're in Konoha. I know they're fine._

I turned my head, gazing at the black haired boy lying with his back to me.

_It's _him_ that I have to bring back home._

Sakura's face flashed in front of my eyes.

_I made a promise to a very special person..._

I yawned, and it felt like the moment I closed my eyes, the moment I was thrown into a dream.

People I didn't know swarmed in front of my face, saying things I didn't understand, wearing clothes I wasn't used to...

I felt sunlight suddenly. Shining down into my eyes. I lifted my arm, shielding my face and backing up but my feet hit against the edge of something and I found myself tripping, sprawled out onto my back.

"...Ouch." I muttered, rubbing my side.

"...And so just like that, I ended up making the perfect curry stew!" A feminine voice declared.

"Sounds like an eventful day." A deeper voice said.

I watched as a man, who looked like he'd never smiled a day in his life, allowed his lips to stretch upwards for a dark haired woman who walked next to him wearing a stained apron.

_She kind of looks familiar... But I know I've never seen her before._

"Oh, it's just preparing meals." She told him.

"Everyone has a place in the family."

"...Family." She repeated, then she snapped her fingers. "Speaking of that, where are the boys?"

She sped up, heading right toward me, where I still sat on the edge of the porch.

"Hey, hey, watch it!" I exclaimed. "I'm-"

But...but she walked right through me!

"Itachi-kun! Sasuke-kun!"

_...Sasuke?_

I turned, noticing for the first time a tuft of blue-black hair sticking out from behind the edge of the house behind me accompanied by a small pale hand gripping the wall there. As I noticed it, the woman seemed to as well and she stopped, waiting expectantly.

Suddenly, with his hands outstretched and wiggling playfully, the person jumped out, staggering slightly on small, unsteady legs.

"Boo!" He shouted gleefully, while grinning looking like the furthest thing from a monster.

_This kid is..._

The woman put a hand to her heart, pretending to faint.

"Oh, you sly little ninja, you got me!" She said.

His mother bent down scooping him up into her arms so quickly that his gray trousers sagged slightly, revealing the top of a pair of toilet training pants underneath.

_A toddler Sasuke?_

"If he's here, then where's-"

But before the man could complete that sentence, a creak was heard on the roof. Everyone looked up but before our eyes could even steady from the sun, Sasuke's father jumped to the side, narrowly missing being impaled by another boy.

"Boo." He said plainly, straightening up and flicking bits of dirt off of a sleeveless white shirt he wore that matched the one the toddler Sasuke wore.

His father straightened up, looking completely unphased.

"You keep practicing your stealth like that, and you're gonna be the best infiltration ninja this village has to offer...Itachi."

He reached out, patting his head just as his mother grabbed his cheek and pinched it playfully.

"Our little eight year old genius." She doted. "But now that you've finished playing hide and seek, help me with the sandwiches. Today's picnic day, remember?"

"We're going to the waterfalls then?" Itachi asked.

"A little time with family never hurt anyone." Their father replied.

Sasuke stretched down, thick fingers reaching for Itachi, who immediately took him from their mother and balanced him on his hip like he'd been doing it for years.

Sasuke grabbed his hair firmly in his chubby infantile hand and tugged it.

"Ow!"

"Picnic!" He exclaimed.

"Hey, Sasuke, let go."

"Picnic!"

"Let go, _please_?"

_Sasuke has such a nice family like this? _

I watched as they all walked inside to prepare for their small trip.

_Then what happened to them...?_

But as I asked that, I realized I knew what happened to them. I was there when it happened. In the village, when the yellow tape was stretched across the Uchiha District gate and everyone could smell the blood rotting for miles and then Sasuke was around all the time. Always alone. Always near me because I was also always alone.

The dreamscape changed as my thoughts did. The sun disappeared and was replaced by a large full moon. Blood splattered against the windows and walls. Screams rang out across the district. A swift pair of feet ran from one house, to the next to the next, and I just watched. I couldn't move or stop it and then finally the pair of feet walked up, until they were right in front of me.

_This... This person... He is..._

Even though he was taller, and his eyes were colder and he was covered in blood, I recognized the eight year old I'd just seen as...

_His brother._

And then he lunged at me, slashing across my body with his sword and I was almost immediately cut to pieces, bleeding, and...

"Usuratonkachi!"

I shot up out of the bed, head colliding into something really hard and solid.

"Ow!" A voice rang out.

I looked around, blinking hard and trying to steady my vision.

"What the hell is a matter with you?" Sasuke grumbled.

I looked around the dimly lit, cold, dungeon and rubbed my forehead sorely.

"W-Where are we?"

"'Tch, in Orochimaru's cage, are you really that dense after sleeping?"

I shook my head, trying to shake out what I felt like was a really bad dream.

"Ohhhh... Right, right."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and pointed at the door.

"They want you."

I looked up to see Kabuto standing in the doorway with his eyebrows raised at me. As he held the door open, Karin ducked under his arm, making her way back into our room.

_Why are they taking us separately? What's happening?_

"Scared to leave your Sasuke-kun?" Kabuto joked.

I glanced at Sasuke who rolled his eyes again and I stuck my tongue out.

"I'm glad to be leaving this empty box." I said, getting to my feet.

"Make sure you stay out of my way this time."

"Why don't _you _stay out of _my_ way?" I retorted.

Kabuto slammed the iron door shut behind me and I watched as he put his hands together forming some kind of seal on the door.

_...I thought it just had a regular lock. Figures. We're really trapped..._

"What do you want me for?"

"What do you think?" Kabuto replied in his sneering tone. "More experiments on that precious beauty mark on your palm."

_Oh right... This thing..._

I shook my head, wondering why my thoughts were so scattered, but I began to recall the conversation I'd had before I went to sleep.

"I don't know how I did it." I said to him. "I don't know, so, you should stop all this and just let us go."

He acted as if he didn't hear me. I stopped in the hall, waiting until, like I knew he would, he stopped too.

"I'm serious!" I yelled. "Let us go, this is stupid!"

Kabuto turned to me, sneer missing from his face.

"Are you really that much of an idiot?"

"What are you talking about? You're just interested in this seal, right? I'm telling you, it's just gonna have to be stuck forever."

He sighed.

"Your seal isn't the point of all this." He told me. "That's just a side operation that's only mildly amusing Lord Orochimaru. His real interest is Sasuke."

"What does he even want him for anyway?" I asked.

"That's of no concern to you. But until Sasuke makes his move, we'll just have fun cutting the nerves and tendons in your palm, one by one."

"I don't care what you do to me." I said. "But what do you mean about Sasuke's move?!"

"Naruto, you can't tell me that you haven't noticed it." He said, smile beginning to return.

"Noticed what?" I asked.

"Sasuke's true nature."

_His...true nature?_

"He's ambitious. He wants power. And right now, you're standing in the way of that power with this clone curse mark you have." Kabuto said. "All Lord Orochimaru has to do is wait until Sasuke gets fed up and snaps and delivers your cold, lifeless body to his feet."

I responded without even thinking.

"You're wrong!" I shouted. "Even though that guy's an asshole, he's..."

"_Sasuke... What am I to you?"_

"_To me...you're my closest friend."_

"I'm..."

"_Then why... Why are you doing this?"_

"_It's because you're my best friend, that I have to-"_

"I'm the one he really cares about." I declared.

Kabuto laughed. His laugh echoed throughout the thin, dark hallways. There was a shearing sound, like fingernails scratching against the other iron doors surrounding us, small fingernails, other prisoners?

"The one he really cares about, huh?" He smirked. "So, what? Did you think he was your one true friend?"

_He is... Isn't he?_

"But he tried to kill you once before, didn't he?" Kabuto turned around, still chuckling. "Heh... Friends. That's why I could never understand them."

I stood there, feeling the emptiness close in around me and the sound of the little nails scratching against the iron doors filled that emptiness, making it only feel more lonely.

_Sasuke... Would you really...?_

But then, as my brain reeled, reaching out in all directions for an answer, something to clarify, something I already knew, I gripped it. That dream I had.

_If that was real... Then, Sasuke... The true Sasuke... Isn't the one Kabuto's talking about._

Visions of people being slaughtered left and right, trying to hide and hold their family members, opting to die with them flashed in my mind.

_A ruthless Sasuke was born to protect the tender Sasuke. It has to be that way._

And then I thought of all our missions together, all the moments we'd spent, most of them silent or arguing, but still...together...

_But... I've always know that, deep inside, I've always known we both put up a front. _

"Hurry up!" Kabuto yelled.

My eyes set against the dim light, casting shadows across my face.

_I know my friend. No one can tell me that I don't know Sasuke. I'm going to save him. I'll make it so that the true him doesn't have to hide anymore. He can count on me._


	2. Chapter 2

**Sasuke**

_Where...is this?_

I blinked, looking around. I felt inexplicably sluggish. Like I hadn't slept in days. Which I hadn't. I'd begun having these nightmares I couldn't remember when I slept. So I wanted to avoid it.

_But... I must've fallen asleep._

It was dark. There was nothing to see. But in this distance, I could hear something that sounded like dripping water. Dripping...Dripping... And then, like an explosion of color, sound and life, I was standing somewhere completely different.

_This has to be a dream._

It was a bright blue cloudless day. My eyes settled on a girl in a dress running past me, carrying two bentos as a younger boy followed her struggling to keep up.

"Tomohiko, hurry, hurry! We'll be late for class!"

"Okay, neechan!"

Their feet slapped against the dirt, mixing in with the sounds of life of others.

"A nice cup of sake. After _that_ mission, that's all I can ask for."

"Agreed."

"Hey guys, Papa said we could launch fireworks in the show tonight!"

"YEAHHHH!"

"How much is it for a headband, sir?"

"I can trade it to you for that bracelet you have on."

Everyone ran past me, around me, and even at some points through me as they talked, going on about what they needed to do. I felt a strange urge to ask them a question, a question I couldn't even identify. It didn't matter. I had a feeling they wouldn't be able to see me anyway. But with everyone moving around me, naturally, my eyes fell on the one person that wasn't moving.

On a short staircase across from me, he sat down, staring straight toward me but with a dazed, empty expression. A look characterized by someone who literally had no idea what to do or where to go from there. I knew that look familiarly since, right after what happened to my clan, I wore that expression for months on end.

"Sakura-chan! Hurry with those flowers! We have to deliver them to Ino's mother straight away."

I raised my eyebrows as a small, pink-haired, three or four year old sized Sakura in a flowing red and pale pink dress walked right through me, chasing after her mother. As she did, a couple of the flowers blew out of the bag she held and onto the dirt. By instinct, because on missions Sakura dropped things all the time, I reached down but my hand went right through it and another hand...a smaller one reached through my hand and grasped the flower.

"You dropped this!" The younger Naruto declared.

But the girl didn't turn.

"Hey! Hey!" He called.

He ran over, putting a hand on her shoulder and she turned around, squinting against his bright blonde hair which radiated like the sun.

"Here you go."

She began to smile, and reached out, beginning to take it but then a passerby jumped in front of them, separating them, and knocked the flowers out of his hand.

"Don't touch that boy!" He yelled. "He's a plague!"

Shock crossed the girl's face, but as her mother quickly ran back for her and pulled her up into her arms, she didn't protest and faced forward.

"But, I-"

"Didn't we tell you to stay out of the village square!?"

"Get lost, demon!"

"Demon!"

"Why don't you go get a life?"

He turned, running away from the shouting people with clear confusion on his face and, just out of obligation I followed him.

_So this... Is what Naruto's past looks like._

Tears streamed down his face and he sobbed, covering his face as he ran wearing a pair of brown shorts with tatters in them that looked like he'd dug them out of the garbage. He didn't stop until he was far away from the village plaza and then paused near a house where a woman was scolding her teenaged son.

"This entire house is a mess! What did you do, throw a party!?" She exclaimed.

He shrugged sheepishly.

"It was just a couple of friends, Oka-san..."

"Wait until your father hears about this!"

Naruto paused near them, watching, and as he did the teenage boy protectively grabbed his mother's arm and pulled her into the house, slamming the door firmly in his face.

He turned away, not even the least bit surprised and walked a lonely path up to the poorer side of Konoha where there were mostly shoddy apartments complexes with clothes lines attaching one to the other and walked up the landing and to an apartment.

He reached down, pulling a key out of his shoe and using it to open the door.

_I'm not even surprised..._

The entire place was a mess. Completely, disgustingly dirty and messy. With everything turned over and glass and dishes cracked and shattered and the sheets on his bed balled up and thrown everywhere. The refrigerator door was open. It looked, literally, like a storm passed through. But what I didn't expect was the surprise on his face. Looking down at a note. It read:

"THIS IS WHAT YOU GET, YOU DEMON CHILD!"

Oddly, the young Naruto smiled, picking it up and placing it on his desk, where plant seed and painting tools were strewn everywhere.

"Mail..." He said to himself. "No one's ever written to me before."

He stared at it for a long time and then scratched his hair.

"I wish I could read it."

_You're lucky you can't read._

He turned, looking around at the messy room and looked at the mirror over his desk, pointing at his reflection.

"This entire house is a mess!" He shouted, high soprano voice ringing out. "You better clean it up right now or else you'll be in _big_ trouble!"

I watched as he bowed his head sheepishly.

"Sorry, Oka-san. I'll clean it up right away."

_This is..._

"Okay. I love you, Naruto."

_This is just really..._

"I love you, too, Oka-san."

_Really...awful._

He went around, cleaning his room up and continuing to talk like there was someone else there. A couple times, he reached his fist out, like expecting a friendly fist pound and so strangely, I found myself reaching my fist out...but it just went through his.

_How is this even possible? I knew that guy didn't have a family... I knew that but... This... This is what that looks like?_

"If you finish up fast, I'll take you to the festival and buy you a popsicle."

"Yes, Otou-san!"

_He's always smiling and saying stupid things but... _

As my pity for him began to weigh on me, the dream changed. Like it was melting. Naruto sat in the middle of his destructed house, alone, melting away until I was standing in the center of darkness again. Darkness. With the dripping. Dripping.

Suddenly, a pair of hot, red eyes made themselves visible in the darkness.

"How...DARE YOU ENTER MY REALM?!"

A bit of light came through, shinning on it briefly so I was able to see enough. It was huge.

_What the hell IS that?!_

The roar from the voice caused the water to blow past me along with a burst of wind. A loud, inhumane growl escaped the things' lips.

"KILL... KILL... IF YOU AREN'T PREPARED TO KILL, DON'T YOU EVER STAND BEFORE ME AGAIN!"

I took a few steps back, unsure of how to act as it reared it's ugly head toward me.

_Is this still a dream?!_

"I'll DESTROY EVERYTHING!"

I felt the cold sweat running down my back before I was even conscious, and when I regained consciousness, I was already sitting up, breathing hard. I thought my heart was going to burst from my chest.

"...Sasuke?"

_What was that...? What's going on?_

"Sasuke."

_W-Where am I?_

It took a while for my eyes to process what I was seeing but I blinked, recalling the cage I was locked up in, and as my eyes rose from the chalk line I'd drawn on the ground and up a bed, my eyes locked on a pair of blue ones.

He sat on the edge of his bed, staring at me. I turned away from him, trying to steady my breathing and calm my nerves.

_This is why I stopped sleeping... _

But then that made something occur to me.

_That dream, though... It was all about Naruto._

I looked up, catching him still sitting there, watching me.

_How is it possible to have a dream about something I don't even know about?_

But I knew it had to have been his real past. It just felt too real.

_But that also meant... I've been having these dreams for a while now. But for some reason, I just couldn't remember them?_

"Aren't you too old to be afraid of the dark?"

I looked up to see that classic grin plastered across his face.

_That grin... It's not even him. It's just a mask he puts on. The true Naruto is..._

I felt a chill go down my spine as that creature's voice echoed in my head again.

_Filled with darkness._

But, I addressed him normally.

"Dumbass." I mumbled.

But instead of returning with an insult, he got out of bed, heading toward me.

"Hey!" I shouted. "No crossing the line!"

"You can cram your stupid line up your ass, bakasuke!" He replied.

"'Tch." I shied away from him as he neared me. "What the hell do you want?"

"The truth." He said. "Are you going to try to kill me?"

I looked up at him. He scratched his hair impishly and smiled again.

"I know...you wouldn't anymore, right? But... I guess I'm just asking to be sure."

I balled my fists and looked down at my sheets.

"If you want to ensure your life, then leave."

"...What?"

"Karin is a sensor." I reminded him. "With her ability and your general strength, it wouldn't be an issue for you to escape here since both of you are taken out of this cell often."

_I'm...the only one that's had to stay in here full time._

I looked up at him.

"Create a plan and go home." I told him. "Then, you'll be alive and out of my way."

He stared at me for a second.

"...Home?" He repeated. "Sometimes I wonder if Konoha really was home."

_...What?_

"What does it mean to have a home...anyway..." He whispered.

I felt awkward momentarily, like I was intruding on his personal thoughts until he laughed.

"But I'm going to be Hokage, so I have to go back!" He declared.

"Exactly. Who's going to be Hokage if you're wasting your time here, ruining my life."

He shook his head.

"Well... It's just that..." He began playing with his fingers. "I miss Sakura-chan and Kakashi Sensei and everyone... But when I think of home... Somehow..."

He scratched his hair again.

"Somehow, it'd wouldn't feel like home if you weren't there, too, Sasuke..."

We were both silent. He picked at his boxers, since at some point, he'd removed his jacket and trousers, and I flicked the end of the bed sheet between my fingers.

"Stop being so awkward." I muttered. "It'd be the same village whether I'm there or not."

He looked me straight on then.

"Well, what about you, then?" He asked me. "What do you think of when you think about home?"

A vision of my brother and parents swam in front of my view.

"_Nii-san, let's go play hide-and-seek!"_

_My mother pulled my ear._

"_Not until you clean your room, Sasuke." She ordered._

"_Don't worry, Sasuke." Itachi said, offering me a smile. "I'll help you."_

"I don't know." I mumbled.

"How can you not know?"

"Because I don't." I muttered.

"Well... If someone tried to take away whatever home you could think of, what would you do?"

"I'd do everything in my power to keep it." I said, without blinking.

"That's what I'm doing, too." He said, motioning to me. "I'm taking you back home with me, Sasuke."

Then he grinned, shrugging.

"Besides... I promised Sakura-chan, so..."

It was silent again. I slowly opened my eyes, sighing.

"Get out of my face." I mumbled. "Let me stare at the ceiling in peace."

"You can't sleep either, right?"

_...Either?_

He walked closer to my bed.

"I have an idea."

He lifted the bed sheet over me and nudged me to the side.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

"Just move."

"Hey!"

He pushed me to the side, moving himself underneath the bedsheet next to me.

"You're way too close to me!"

"Stop complaining, I'm trying to help you."

"How is this helpful at ALL?!"

"Because!" he shouted. "Because we're close together!"

"Are you an idiot!?" I exclaimed, trying to shove him off.

"I'm trying to sleep!" Karin grumbled from her bed.

Naruto lifted his head next to me.

"You don't have bad dreams when you have someone close by." He told me.

"Who the hell told you that?!"

He paused momentarily, then shrugged.

"Well... No one." He said as he settled in. "But when I used to have bad dreams when I was younger, I always wished I had someone there with me."

I watched him momentarily and sighed, deciding not to struggle anymore. He stretched out on his back, angling his face away from mine and resting his hands on his bare chest. I sat up, finding my eyes traveling down to the curse mark on his palm and Orochimaru's words became evident to me again.

"You know the agreement, Sasuke..." He seemed to whisper. "Either tell me how to undo the seal, or kill him."

_But that agreement..._ _That agreement... How the hell can I even choose to uphold it if I don't have the information he wants? _

It seemed like Naruto fell asleep immediately. His breathing was steady and his chest rose and fell in rhythm.

_Even the idiot himself doesn't know what he did._

But I had to admit, when Orochimaru told me it wasn't his planning that had given Naruto a mark on his hand, I was genuinely surprised...

_How could Naruto even do a jutsu of such caliber that Orochimaru himself is baffled?_

My hands began to ball into fists.

_Why does he keep getting so damn strong?!_

I pressed my knuckles together.

_But this is perfect, isn't it? I wanted to kill him before... I _had _to kill him before, because..._

I recalled Itachi's words that dreadful night.

"_To come before me with the same power I have... You must kill your closest friend."_

It was like the universe was stacking against me. I had decided then, at the Final Valley, that I wouldn't do it. That doing it would make me just as bad as him. But suddenly... Suddenly, I was faced with the same decision all over again.

_Killing him Naruto now would solve two problems. Free me of this ridiculous captivity and give me the power to be on caliber with Itachi at the same time. I should do it... It makes perfect sense for me to do it... He's in my way... I told him to leave but he insists on being in my way..._

I let my hands relax, which had been in fists and I reached toward him, fingers extended, lowering onto his neck.

_Naruto... You're going to have to die for my sake..._

"...Itachi..."

I froze, finger tips only centimeters away from his throat.

"It's Sasuke's brother... He..."

Naruto's head turned toward me, lolling with sleep. I could feel my blood running cold as he continued sleep talking.

"He's the one that murdered the clan..." Naruto whispered.

_How does he know that? How does he know Itachi's name?! How does he know he's my brother?! And how does he know what he did!?_

As I thought all these things, I felt a strange warmth circulating around the curse mark on my neck. And as I did, it was almost like the one on Naruto's palm was glowing.

"This clone curse mark..." I whispered. "What the hell IS this?"

I was hoping it wasn't a two way street. I was praying it wasn't. I was hoping my wormhole into Naruto's past wasn't accompanied by some strange double wormhole into mine. But with what he was saying. And our twin nightmares...

_This is insane. Somehow, he's connected both of us. _

And then my hands dropped from his neck.

"At this point, even if I truly wanted to kill you, I couldn't do it..."

_Because for all I know, with this weird connection, it could have some adverse effect on me. Like twin deaths._

I was filled with anxiousness. A thousand possibilities. A thousand endings to this predicament. But as I lowered myself into the sheets, I began to feel an overwhelming sense of serenity. I was reminded of my family again. Of what I thought was home. And it was akin to the feeling I'd felt when I went outside... And then... It occurred to me.

_It wasn't outside that made me feel that way... It was closeness to him._

And that was when I realized...

_I need to stop this before it gets out of hand. Worse case scenario, I'll be completely dependent on Naruto._

**Kabuto**

"Karin's reporting." I said right before I dropped down into the metallic chair next to the surgical table.

Orochimaru was sitting up on the surgical table, incredibly weakened after I'd done tests all morning to try to give him new variants of the drug that stopped the pain in his useless arms.

"Good..." Orochimaru said, breathing heavily. "Karin... Go on."

She bowed her head, nodding and continued to speak.

_Karin... So weak and fragile..._

"For the past week, the Uzumaki boy has grown restless, spending all his time concocting new ways to annoy Sasuke-kun."

An expression passed over her face, one of irritation.

"I wish for him to be neutralized, Lord Orochimaru. He's an...interference."

_Or at least she seems that way when reporting to Orochimaru-sama. But with all the other prisoners and even to me at times, she's gained the reputation as one of the most difficult and prideful females anyone has ever set eyes on. _

"With Sasuke-kun?"

She nodded hard.

"During the days, they're normal. They bicker all day and threaten to kill each other and even get into fights now and then."

"Interesting." I spoke up. "Who wins?"

"There isn't enough space for them to fight seriously." She said in a matter-of-factly tone. "So, they get tired of it."

I sighed.

"How boring." Orochimaru commented.

"But then... They act completely different other times." Karin told him. "Other times, they're kind and considerate to each other, going to great lengths to talk seriously and every night, they..."

Orochimaru and I waited. Staring at her.

"...What?" I asked. "At night, they do what?"

"Sleep together." She said.

I turned to Orochimaru.

"I won that bet." I replied.

He ignored me.

"_Every_ night?" He repeated.

She nodded, looking hopeless.

"I see." He said. "It looks like the worst has happened."

"What? That your new body host has a thing for blondes?" I asked.

But he clearly wasn't in the mood for jokes. He stared at the wall, musing silently.

"It'll have to happen as quickly as possible." He said. "Sasuke needs to identify Naruto as an enemy. Today."

He slid off the table and began his slow stagger toward the door.

"We can't have Sasuke reverting back to his natural relationship with Naruto." Orochimaru went on.

_What about that relationship is natural?_

"Is there anything else?" I asked Karin as we headed for the room.

She paused momentarily.

_Is she considering lying?_

"You do realize withholding any information is similar to treason." I reminded her.

"I understand that perfectly." She said, indignantly. "It's just...I'm not too sure about this..."

"We will be the ones to decide whether it's useful or not. Just speak." I said.

"Well... Sasuke's been acting sort of odd."

"Odder than sleeping with boys?"

"I mean... Like hearing things."

Orochimaru's head turned, showing, even as he staggered down the hall, he was listening.

"Hearing what?"

"Well, whenever you guys take Naruto to test on him, he starts holding his hands to his ears, like it's loud but...it's not loud...it's quiet."

"Did he ever mention to you what he was hearing?" Orochimaru questioned.

"No, but..." She cocked her head. "He did complain to Naruto early yesterday about his screaming..."

"Screaming?" I repeated.

"He said something like 'It's clear that you want to leave, if you didn't, you wouldn't be screaming every time they torture you'" She said. "But the thing is..."

_Naruto doesn't scream when we test his mark. Even though the methods we use are probably incredibly painful, he can't. We always feed him with a drug to paralyze his muscles, including the ones needed for speech. _

"...He asked me before if I heard his screaming..." Karin mumbled. "...I never heard anything."

Orochimaru turned, facing forward again so I couldn't see the expression on his face but strangely, as I looked closer, it seemed like the corner of his mouth was turned up in a smirk.

"Naruto." I heard him say quietly, tongue wetting his lips. "It seems you've opened a bigger can of worms than I even could've imagined..."

**Naruto**

_Something happy. _

In front of my eyes, a six or seven year old Sasuke appeared being carried on a pre-teen Itachi's back.

"I told you to be more careful training Sasuke."

He buried his face into his older brother's hair.

"It's fine since you were there, Nii-san."

I'd watched the scene a million times by then. Once in the dream, I discovered I could see whatever I wanted out of Sasuke's past. I wasn't really sure how I was doing it but it was like asking myself for a favor.

_Another happy one._

A four year old looking Sasuke heard the front door open and dropped his ninja toys as he hurriedly ran to the front door, jumping into his older brother's arms.

Or like changing the channel on a television. I just needed to want to see something else.

_Something...painful._

I wasn't really sure why I asked for the painful things. Watching them hurt me as much as it hurt the Sasuke in the vision. But I guess I was just still in denial that something painful really could've happened to that self-deserving, asshole. I honestly couldn't watch enough of it. By the seventh night sleeping there, I'd watched more scenes of an eight year old Sasuke curled up in a random apartment on the richer side of Konoha crying into his pillow and tossing and turning in bed than I did scenes of him as a happy child.

And then, I'd just sit there in his past. Watching as he sat alone in his apartment tearing his family's pictures out of old photo albums and burning them in fires or being sure to leave the light on in the bathroom every night before he went to sleep or hearing knocks at the door by kind villagers coming to give him toys and fruit only to ignore it.

Who would've known that he'd burn more than 200 pictures in one sitting? I did... I counted each one.

And who would've known such a bastard guy was afraid of the dark? I did... I felt a sense of panic for him in any dream where he almost forgot to put the light on.

And who would've known the way he really felt about all those nice people?

"Poor Uchiha kid." He whispered to himself. "That's probably all they say... I hate them... I hate everyone here..."

"Oi, boy!" An older man's voice yelled. "We cooked food!"

"I don't need any of their pity help..." He muttered. "I'm not weak."

"Maybe he's not home?"

"Hey, open the door, kid!"

"Did he run away?"

Initially, I didn't get it. As a kid, I'd have jumped at any chance to have someone knock at my door. No one ever came by my place. Except the 3rd Hokage to drop off a check.

_This jerk... He doesn't even realize how good he has it. _

"Open the door, bakasuke!" I shouted at him.

I punched through his form, wishing it was all real so I could beat some sense into his stupid head.

"You wouldn't have to be alone if you'd just open the freaking door!"

He never had to be alone. He just chose it for himself. Choosing to sit in his stupid empty apartment all alone forever and wallow in his own stupid self-pity.

"Feeling sorry for you is SO STUPID!" I shouted as his form. "There's people who would love you right there!"

But of course he couldn't hear me.

"What the hell is WRONG with you?!" I yelled.

"Who do they think they're fooling?" Sasuke said quietly.

"Let's just leave it by the door and get out of here." One lady said.

"Yeah." A man groaned. "But I wonder if Third Hokage-sama will be pleased with us even if we didn't actually see him."

_Third Hokage?_

There were mummers of agreement and footsteps walking off.

"...Sasuke _Uchiha_. It's just my clan. That's all they think about. They don't actually want to get to know 'Sasuke'. Or care about 'Sasuke'. They just want to look like kind people... I'm not buying into their lies."

_...Kind people?_

He got up slowly making his way to the door, and he did, he picked up all the things those 'kind' people brought him and dumped it straight in the trash next to the door.

"Just because of my surname people lie to me... They pretend to adore me. They pretend to want the best for me." He slammed the door behind him, small frame sliding down to the carpet where he pulled his legs into his chest. "I could say anything to them and they'd all smile and nod but..."

He grabbed onto a rose that someone had left, squeezing it in his hand, smashing it until the red smeared across his fingers.

"...Isn't the person who cares about someone the person who tells them the truth?"

It was strange then. I'd firmly believed that having people, no matter if they lied or not, was better than having no one. But he believed the opposite and the reason why felt really...honest. It was changing my own thoughts.

_So that's why he always stayed away from all the girls at school that loved him and all the teachers that tried to hug him and all of his 'fans'? Because he felt like they were lying to him?_

I walked over, crossing my legs and sitting down in front of the ten or eleven year old Sasuke that ripped the rose to shreds. He paused, looking down at the pieces.

"Well... At least there's one person who doesn't pretend to care about me."

I raised my eyebrows.

"Who?!" I asked him.

He reached, slowly picking up one rose petal delicately between his forefinger and thumb. His lips parted, like he was going to say the person's name. I leaned forward, trying to hear it, almost until my nose was touching his.

"Come on, tell me." I prodded.

"Are you going to shut-up?" A voice said.

I blinked. The dream shook momentarily, like a television channel that was getting a bad signal. I strained still, trying to read Sasuke's lips.

"A-A-Are you going to s-shut up?" The voice repeated, echoing throughout my head.

Then the dream shattered, and even though I tried to hold on, everything was falling apart.

"Wait..."

I felt hands on me, shaking me.

"...Sasuke, wait..." I muttered.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Huh?"

I blinked, the dim orange light of the almost burned out candle swam into my view. Then Sasuke's face, leaning over mine.

"W-What?"

"What the hell are you doing saying my name while you're asleep?" Sasuke asked me.

It had become a lot easier to remember the dreams after I woke up, since I wanted to remember them. I grasped it easily, remembering the full force of what had happened.

_But... I don't even know if these dreams are real or not. _

"What's the point of you taking up all by bed space if you're having nightmares anyway?"

"_You_ stopped having nightmares every night, didn't you!?" I pointed out. "And besides, I wasn't even having one! It was just...a dream."

He lay back down, sliding his hand behind his head and directing his gaze up at the wall.

"About me?" He asked.

My face broke out into protest.

"I wouldn't ever have a dream about you!" I retorted. "That would be completely gross and weird and anyway, I don't even know what your past is like so how-"

"Naruto." He interrupted me.

I stiffened, wondering if he was going to call me out on my blatant lie. He was still lying on his back and angling his head away from me, at the wall. I pressed my face into the pillow and sighed.

"What?"

"Which do you think is worse? Losing something close to you or never having anything to lose in the first place?"

I didn't even have to think about it.

"They're both bad." I told him. "Losing something close...it hurts by making you afraid to trust anyone ever again..."

Suddenly, Sasuke's words in my dream floated back to me.

_What he was saying, how he felt. It's all because he's afraid of someone breaking his trust._

"But never having anything at all." I went on. "I guess it just kind of makes you hopeless."

I smiled slightly, pushing up against the pillow.

"...Just really hopeless."

"You think you're hopeless?"

"Don't you?" I countered.

"...No."

_...Wait. Really?_

I turned my head, bringing it around to face his. He looked down at me, giving me that same dull expression.

"You're just clingy and emotionally unstable." He muttered.

"I thought you were going to say something nice!"

"Maybe I can't because I don't have much to go off of."

We glared at each other and then he sighed, looking back at the wall.

"The loneliness of never having someone from the beginning. It's useful..."

I glanced up at him.

"When you finally do get people to care about, you value your relationships with them more than the average person would. It makes you incredibly empathetic...and loyal."

I reached, tugging on his shirt.

"You think I'm loyal to you?"

He turned, giving me a matter-of-factly look.

"You're lying next to me on a chain-bed in a dungeon miles away from Konoha. What the hell do _you_ think?"

I grinned.

"But you'd do the same for me, wouldn't you?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Of course not. I'd have gone straight back to Konoha the first chance I had whether you were with me or not."

"I really hate you, you know..." I told him.

But I was still grinning, and oddly, he smiled back.

I wondered then...

_What kind of 'nice' things could someone who lost everything have? _

I'd never really considered there being anything 'good' about Sasuke. I'd always just seen his flaws; arrogance, one-track mindedness, hatred, negativity, pessimism. I could go on about how awful that jerkass was for days. But something nice?

"So what good thing do you think can come from losing everything?" I asked him.

His smile faltered and faded.

"There's...nothing good about that..."

_Nothing...at all?_

But before I could debate it, the iron door behind us groaned and creaked open.

"Getting cozy?" A voice asked.

I turned, rolling around onto my back as Sasuke sat up next to me.

"You two are getting quite close." Orochimaru wheezed.

"Are you here to free us?" Sasuke asked him.

"I suppose you could see it that way."

"Really!?" I exclaimed.

"Yes." He said. "Hopefully, one of you will be very 'free' quite soon."

I balled my fists.

"No. I told you already. I'm not leaving here without Sasuke. Let us both go." I said to him.

His reptile like eyes flicked to mine like a snake's tongue and he chuckled.

"Naruto... When will you realize that your beloved Sasuke would rather be here with me than anywhere with you?"

_You're wrong... He's just..._

I looked up at Sasuke, who avoided my eyes. But his fists were also balling.

_He's just afraid... He's afraid of getting too close to anyone... So he's trying to push us all away._

I raised my eyebrows, shocked at my own understanding of him.

_Since when did I see this guy in a good light, anyway?_

"Sasuke, your time is up." Orochimaru said. "A curse seal can only be removed by the seal caster, or in this case, the seal sealer... Naruto. Since he isn't aware of the key he used to seal it, you're left with no other options..."

He grinned.

"You must battle Naruto and I shall have the victor."

"We're not doing that." I replied at the same time Sasuke said "Fine."

I turned to him, face exploding into unrest.

"What do you mean!?"

He shoved me, making me roll out of the bed and just nearly catch myself on my toes.

"Move out of my way."

"But I-"

I was tugged backwards as someone's fingers closed around my arm.

"Hurry up, Naruto. We really haven't got all day." Kabuto said, forcing me toward the door. "You've held up Sasuke for almost two full weeks now."

I turned, stumbling out of the door, barefoot.

"But what about my shoes?" I exclaimed.

"We aren't breaching ground level. Not that your comfort ability concerns me at all." Orochimaru said.

I raised my eyes, catching the sight of Karin standing further down the hall and cocked my head.

_That's right... She wasn't in bed. Why did they...?_

"Keep moving."

Sasuke fell into step next to me. I turned my head, trying to get a good look at his face but it was completely blank.

_Why would you agree to this? Could it be that... You still want to kill me, Sasuke?_

**Sasuke**

The arena we were led to was indoors. It was large, dim and dirty, dark greenish brown walls surrounded us in a circular fashion with a couple of in-wall boxes for seating much higher up.

"Who are they?" Naruto asked.

Beneath those viewing boxes though, there was a line of people standing there. Kids like us. All wearing rags similar to the ones Karin wore when I'd first seen her. Since then, she'd gotten a pretty obvious upgrade in clothing to the point that, there, standing between us and Orochimaru, she wore lavender colored cotton fabric wrapped around her in a kimono-like fashion.

_That girl is much closer to Orochimaru than it seems._

"Your opponents." Orochimaru replied.

And it also seems that Naruto isn't the only person Orochimaru wants to get rid of.

"Like a...battle royale?" Naruto asked.

_He's lining us all up like cattle to die. Is this how he controls over-population around here? _

I recalled the hands gripping the bars as we walked past the other iron doors.

_Either this or starvation._

They all stood as he neared them. One by one they obediently bent, bowing their heads to him and struggling to balance themselves on one malnourished, bony knee.

"Do you even_ feed_ these guys?" Naruto exclaimed.

"Do we feed _you_?" Kabuto retorted.

"Silence." Orochimaru said.

His eyes traveled among the twenty or so children there, as they raised their heads and observed us silently.

"You all have served me well." Orochimaru said. "But unfortunately, we've come to the end of the road."

Their eyes all widened simultaneously. Some with grief, some with guilt, and others with shame.

Orochimaru motioned to me, smirking snidely at them.

"This boy will become my successor, soon." He told them. "His name is Sasuke-kun and he will be in charge of exterminating you."

_Exterminating?_

"Perhaps you may still be able to prove useful to me..." He said, then he chuckled. "But I doubt it."

Their eyes turned to me and once locked, the guilt and grief and shame was replaced with only one thing...pure contempt...and rage.

_This isn't going to be a battle royale at all. He's planning for this to be..._

"...A complete massacre." Naruto whispered, finishing my sentence.

Then he looked at me, blue eyes shining.

"Is he trying to_ kill_ you?"

_No... He just wants to test me to be sure I'm even worth all the trouble he's going through._

"There's better ways to test you, you know." Naruto muttered. "This guy's a _maniac_."

Orochimaru had turned around, walking with Kabuto over to the booth high in the wall over our heads.

"Come Karin." Orochimaru stated.

She nodded, clearly relieved she didn't have to participate and walked toward him, but as she passed me, she paused.

"You can do it." She told me.

Naruto looked at her expectantly to which she continued walking by without even sparing him a glance.

"...Some cousin_ you_ are." He grumbled.

_I don't need some girl to tell me what I can and cannot do._

I looked out among them, feeling a strong sense of confidence surge through me as I picked out the ones who I believed may pose a problem and found that there were only two or three.

_I'm not even going to break a sweat._

"Heh." Naruto remarked. "You're always putting on airs like that, you arrogant asshole."

He thrust his fist into his palm.

"Well, I haven't practiced much since I've been here... This will be a fun warm up."

I turned to him.

"No." I said. "Orochimaru only said for me to fight. There's no reason for you to interfere."

"He _never _says my name. That doesn't mean anything."

"Fine." I told him. "I'll put it this way..."

My Sharingan activated.

"If you get in my way, I'll _kill _you."

He crossed his arms and glared at me. I glared back.

"Whatever." He muttered.

"_...One day, I'll make him realize how useful I really am..."_

I blinked, staring hard at him. His lips weren't moving but I could've sworn I heard him speak.

"Are you ready Sasuke?"

I turned around, then, facing them all.

"I was born ready."

I could hear Orochimaru's chuckles fill the arena.

"Good answer."

The cast-offs got to their feet, cracking their knuckles, some grinning at me, others glaring. All wanting to prove themselves to this snake master.

"BEGIN!"

They all rushed toward me, some immediately weaving signs, others diving forward with punches. Normally, with my Sharingan, it was like everyone else's reaction time, speed and movement was slowed slightly so that I could react to catch them in their attack or even attack earlier than them. But at that time, my Sharingan was completely different. It was like I could see each of them separately. They were all moving in a group but I was able to easily discern which attacks were the ones that needed the most attention. Like a boy's fingers moving quickly to produce something that was probably an earth style wall barrage justu on the left and a girl weaving signs to produce something like a water jutsu.

I found a smirk spreading over my face.

_The upgrade my Sharingan got while fighting Naruto at the Final Valley is a lot stronger than I even expected._

I left the water style attack to be formed, but dove directly toward the boy doing the earth style and made my way through the group.

They all pounced on me, but I was too fast for them to catch and they were so blinded by their eagerness to get to me none of them were thinking and at least three of them impaled themselves simply by hitting their foreheads hard enough against each other to give them concussions.

"Idiots." I declared.

"You won't be saying that for long!" Someone shouted, lunging to grab me.

I smirked, allowing him to actually get his arms around me only to do the hands signs for a fire ball jutsu and take a huge breath right in front of his face.

_Point blank range._

"AGHHH!" He exclaimed, letting me go and stumbling away.

The fire ball jutsu whooshed around and over him singeing people's hair and parts of their rag clothes and, as I predicted, right near the boy trying to perform the earth jutsu causing him to stop his sign weaving in order to dodge.

_This is too easy._

"You guys deserve to be exterminated." I mumbled.

"SASUKE, STOP PLAYING AROUND AND PAY ATTENTION!" Naruto hollered from where he stood on the sidelines.

I glanced at him and then turned, looking up where he pointed.

Kabuto stood in the rafters, holding a large case which he was positioning to turn over and pour onto us.

"Why don't you guys play with some toys to make this more interesting?" He called down to us.

I watched a bunch of paper bombs, shuriken, smoke bombs, kunai knives, and poison tags rain down over us like it was a damn ninja rain storm.

They all scrambled over each other trying to reach for weapons and it was clearly evident to me at that point that I barely had any time to spare.

The boy who had tried to do the earth jutsu attempted it again and I jumped over a couple of the youngest kids fighting over a kunai and landed over him, delivering a solid kick to the side of his head.

"Try again." I taunted.

He glared, rushing toward me, of course with more people coming from all sides. I ducked, allowing him to punch over me, hitting someone else in the face and then kneed him in the stomach so that he fell over me, pulled him over me and turned, miraculously just in time as someone threw a kunai at me and it plunged into his back. A round of shuriken came after that, with him taking them all in his back and coughing blood over me and I threw him back against them, causing one of the kids who had a paper bomb to accidently stick it to someone else's back who immediately panicked.

"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF ME!"

I turned, sensing someone coming over on my back and as the whoosh of flames burst behind me from the exploding paper bomb, I saw the girl from before with the water style, accompanied by a couple others, complete her jutsu and have it raise up, crashing toward me.

_Finally, this girl did what I wanted._

I easily back flipped out of the way and, while the rise of the water jutsu blocked everyone's view, causing them to get swept in with the current and have more accidental exploding weapons, I ran around, making sure that the water had sufficiently drenched everyone before I squatted and thrust my right hand down.

The bright blue lightning sparkled in my eyes and I turned, thrusting my hand into the water, water that was also touching my own feet, and with zero regard for my own body I pulsated the lightning through the waves.

The effect was immediate. Everyone soaked in the water was thoroughly electrocuted to the point that, even after the water jutsu girl, who was also electrocuted, called off her waves, everyone was permanently jolting and rolling around with their muscles spasming uncontrollably. But they weren't dead. I didn't crank my Chidori voltage up high enough to cause anything more than temporary paralysis.

I got to my feet, watching them all and as I did, I felt something. Someone similar to the desperate needs of their hearts. They were all feigning for some kind of recognition from Orochimaru. And I got the feeling that their need for him was much different than mine. They wanted some kind of appreciation... Some kind of...acknowledgement?

I turned toward Naruto who was slowly walking, with his hands up behind his head like he wasn't even slightly surprised that I'd finished in less than five minutes.

It was acknowledgement like the kind Naruto wanted from me. Like the kind of desperate need that really shows an aching for companionship.

As I looked up to Orochimaru gripping the bars that prevented him from falling over the edge of his booth and grinning at me like he was child in a toy store, a weird thought crossed me.

_Does ignoring Naruto make me the same as this man? This man who...purposely crushes these children knowing the only thing that they want is his approval?_

Like the approval I'd always wanted from my brother.

_Humans are strange. It's like we purposely covet the attention of the one person we can never have. Does that...make us all happy? Knowing that no matter what, as long as that person continues ignoring us and we continue fighting for their love, we'll never grow bored. Does it...give us all some kind of twisted purpose?_

Naruto's feet stopped in front of me.

"...Twisted what?" He asked.

I had been looking down at the shaking water user in front of me and I looked up.

"...What are you talking about?"

"You were just saying something to me."

"No, I wasn't." I replied.

He scratched his head.

"I could've sworn I heard you..."

But then my eyes flicked up, and with my Sharingan still activated I saw it, heading toward the back of Naruto's head so quickly, all I could really do for a second was stare.

I saw Naruto's eyes widened, and for a second a strange thing happened, I blinked and I saw myself. I saw myself with an incredulous expression looking up and as I blinked again, my vision was back to normal and I moved, ignoring the shouts and screams of protest from my half-electrocuted arm and feet which had also been submerge in water at that time, and dove into him. Naruto turned around, blocking his face with his hand, and I grabbed him, bringing him down onto the stadium floor and narrowly avoiding his death by at least twelve shuriken in a barrage. The person was running toward me and as Naruto winced, gripping his hand which was dripping in blood, I got to my feet and with my left hand reached out and grabbed the person's arm right as they were about to use it to punch me.

The girl screamed out as my fingers curled around her wrist.

"I was your opponent." I reminded her.

She bent, sliding down to her knees as my hand gripped her arm harder. A sharp pain was spreading throughout my pointer finger and middle finger on my right hand but I ignored it, satisfied with making the girl in front of me beg for mercy.

I continued squeezing her arm until I could feel it, the bone there, and I wanted to snap it. Watching Naruto rolling around holding his hand made me want to snap it...but strangely, as I looked at her, I imagined her rolling around and holding her broken arm exactly as he was and I found I wanted to avoid that feeling. The feeling of watching excessive pain. So I dropped her arm.

She breathed heavily, and with my Sharingan I could see her movements before she made them, her movements toward Naruto again, and so I lifted my leg and kicked her across the face, busting her nose and knocking her out in one simple strike.

"AHHH!" Naruto continued wailing. "My... My fingers!"

"Stop crying like a damn baby." I muttered, not being able to ignore the pressing pain in my own hand.

The hand that wasn't electrocuted. When I looked down at it, it looked fine, it stretched out in all directions but strangely, it was in so much pain...like I'd gotten a couple of my fingers cut off.

"My fingers got cut off!" Naruto exclaimed.

I turned, looking at his hand, his left hand, with two of his fingers severed by the shuriken and only hanging on by threads. And my left hand pulsated and tingled in the exact same area. I dropped to my knees, too, grabbing with my electrocuted Chidori hand which was also in pain at the phantom pains coming from my left hand.

_This actually really hurts._

"Why would I lie about this hurting!?" Naruto shouted.

"You're lucky you're not dead!" I retorted. "I didn't hear a thank you!"

"Get me a freaking medical ninja! THEN I'll thank you!"

"You ungrateful-"

"Congratulations, Sasuke."

We were so busy with our injuries we didn't even notice Orochimaru, Kabuto and Karin walking up.

"You passed with flying colors."

"What are you two doing on the ground?" Kabuto asked. "Having a celebration?"

"Kabuto, heal his hand." I told him.

I gripped my own fingers harder, wondering why the pain was increasing until I saw the sheer flaps of skin holding Naruto's fingers together tearing.

"Now." I added.

"Though, I wonder how well you'll fair in a death match against Naruto in this condition." Orochimaru seethed.

"A death match is impossible." I said to him. "Isn't it obvious?! We're connected somehow!"

Orochimaru gazed at me momentarily and then smirked.

"Kabuto, do as he asks."

Kabuto leaned over Naruto and the hum of green chakra energy flowed out and, also using a scalpel of chakra, he began to sow and stitch Naruto's fingers.

"I can't fight Naruto in this condition." I went on, relieved as the pain began to fade. "At this rate, if I kill him, it could kill me as well."

"But Sasuke, hasn't this always been the case?" Orochimaru asked.

I shook my head at him.

"It's different. This clone curse mark could cause my death and-"

"Whether it's literally or metaphorically, you've always had your own life on the line for the sake of Naruto's, haven't you?" He went on, then his eyes narrowed, giving the impression that he was looking down on me. "What makes this time different is perhaps..."

He turned, walking away.

"The change in _you_."

I looked after him, stretching my fingers out as the pain dissipated and slowly lowering my eyes to a couple of drops of Naruto's blood on the ground. Blood drops which again made me feel animosity toward the stupid girl that caused him pain.

_My change...? Am I really starting to..._

The door echoed after it shut firmly behind Orochimaru.

_But if I have changed then... It's over. I won't...ever be able to turn my back on Naruto again._

**Naruto**

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

A lot more time passed. Karin kept marking the days, making the little lines, but I always got confused with all of the diagonal lines so it hurt my head trying to figure it out. But there were a lot of marks... A lot. Other than periodic food and bathroom breaks, we weren't allowed to leave again. Karin just kept on marking, and Sasuke, even though before he and I used to pass the time by working out, and often getting annoyed with each other and fighting, he started to just lie around...silently.

I got bored so I made four clones and had them all poke him interchangeably.

"Sasuke. Sasuke. Sasuke." They chanted.

"Leave. Me. Alone." He growled.

"Tell us what's wrong, Sasuke."

And then he'd go about smashing each of their heads into walls or the iron bed side to make them explode into smoke but after about three times of him doing that in one day, he just quit. And I got annoyed.

"Come on! Stop being such a jerk and just spit it out already!"

"Go away."

"Isn't it obvious?" Karin asked from her bed.

I turned to her, picking my ear with my pinky finger.

"Huh?"

"He's realized that he's probably going to spend the rest of his life rotting in this cell with _you_."

Sasuke had been lying on his stomach, dragging his finger across the wall and at that moment, he stopped and pressed his head into the pillow.

"Who toldja we're staying here?" I confronted her. "When Sasuke's ready, we'll be on the first trip out of here."

"With what plan?" She asked.

My super duper, ultra, extraordinary spectacular plan...

With the types of jutsu I was able to learn from Ero-Senin, like frog summoning for one, it actually wouldn't have been difficult to escape. All I needed to do was summon a frog, it didn't have to be big, and have it sneak through the cracks, find its way to light and give it a message to return to Konoha. Then when Ero-Senin would arrive to rescue me, I would just need to be outside ready and waiting... Which also wouldn't be difficult. With so much time to think, I discovered that when Kabuto dragged me out of the cell for experimentation every other day or so, I could make a clone and send it out to memorize the hallways, doors and exits. My clones were destroyed by some kind of hidden trap every time but I was getting closer to discovering how the maze worked. It was only a matter of time before I'd have a virtual map sowed into my memory bank. For once in my life, I was actually being patient about something. But that wasn't because I actually wanted to be patient. If it was just me, I'd have escaped the first chance I got. But I wasn't leaving without Sasuke. I was only waiting around for him to come to his senses.

"I thought so... You don't have a plan." Karin said. "And even if you did, Lord Orochimaru would catch you."

"Screw your Lord Orochimaru." I replied. "At least I don't worship some snake creep, and neither does Sasuke. You'll be the only one in here to rot."

She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever."

I glanced back at Sasuke who still hadn't moved and pointed at her.

"What makes you think that's what he's thinking anyway?"

She remained silent.

"Well go on, split if you think you're so smart!"

She sighed.

"You're ruining him." She told me. "And Lord Orochimaru realizes that. That's why he said that to Sasuke after his fight."

_Said what to him?_

I was too busy praying my fingers went back together, I didn't even notice.

_Something about... Sasuke 'changing' or something._

"We're all ninja." Karin went on. "Ruthless assassins who fight only to win and face death in every single battle. But we're fearless. We go in, no matter what the cost. But at that time, Sasuke said..."

I blinked, recalling that part vividly.

"_I can't fight Naruto in this condition. At this rate, if I kill him, it could kill me as well."_

Karin stabbed the wall with the chalk.

"Every battle puts a ninja's life on the line. No matter if it's directly or indirectly." She looked over at Sasuke. "And you know that Sasuke. So why did you say that?"

I could see Sasuke stiffening but he didn't reply.

"But I know why he said it. And so does Lord Orochimaru." She lifted the chalk, using it to point at me. "He wasn't concerned with his own life. He was concerned with yours."

I froze. Momentarily, as I blinked, I saw a vision myself standing there wide-eyed, staring at Karin, and when I blinked again, that vision was gone.

_This... It happened right before I almost got my fingers cut, too._

Back then, I was so confused but seeing those shuriken coming for me from another point of view is what made me panic and turn around which is how my fingers were cut.

_Why do I keep seeing myself when I close my eyes like this?_

I glanced back at Sasuke who had sat up and was looking at me at some point. But his gaze seemed...

_Damn, he's mad..._

I forced myself to laugh.

"Shows how much you know." I remarked. "Sasuke couldn't give two shits about me!"

Karin rolled her eyes.

"I wish that were true." She said. "Because then, Sasuke could get on with his training... Like he needs to. To become a greater ninja than you could even imagine."

I scoffed.

"Yeah, whatever."

"I'm a sensor, you idiot!" she retorted. "I can feel his chakra... And it's strong. Incredibly strong. The strongest chakra I've ever felt from someone our age. He could be..."

Her eyes shifted to Sasuke's.

"He could be amazing... If only_ you_ were out of the picture."

I balled my fists. I knew she was right. Everything she'd said was obvious and I was even startled by his actions during that time but I was too distracted to ask and even more than that, I didn't really want to know the answer.

_We're getting too close._

It's clear that a ninja shouldn't be afraid of battle, whether their death is eminent or not. And even more than that, Sasuke isn't afraid of death. He came to a S-rank criminals' quarters to be caged, toyed with, and experimented on in hopes that it'd make him stronger. He was put up against twenty or more kids in a situation where they were all his opponent, and he went up against me, even while I was bursting with crazy chakra from the nine tails in my stomach at the time, and he didn't bat an eyelash in any single one of these circumstances. In fact, he smiled at the challenge.

But when my life is in danger, it's completely different. He purposely kept me out of his match and he rescued me and he even asked Orochimaru to call off our "death match" all under the guise of his own selfishness.

_He's not fooling anyone._

But strangely, his pride felt like mine at that particular moment, so I continued feeding his lies.

"Whatever you say, Karin 'Uzumaki' if that is your real name." I joked, plopping down on my bed.

As if by cue, at that exact moment, the door groaned, creaked, and begged for mercy as Kabuto pushed it open.

"Come on."

Karin stood up and without another word, they both left, slamming the door firmly behind them.

"I dunno why, but for some reason, I feel like she's supposed to be our secret babysitter or something." I said.

"It's called spying. And that's obvious." He muttered.

I got up off my bed and walked over to him, nudging his shoulder.

"Want to go to sleep?"

He didn't reply, instead, he continued staring up at the ceiling with his hands interlocked behind his head and an expressionless face.

"Sasuke..."

He sighed, moving to the side and allowing me to slide in next to him.

"...We should leave." I said, propping myself up on my elbow.

"_You_ should leave." He countered.

"Shut-up, okay? I'm serious." I said, edging closer to him. "That guy's insane. If he thinks you're not going to kill me, he'll probably kill both of us."

"All the more reason for you to leave."

"I already told you I'm not going anywhere, bakasuke."

"Then, you'll kill me."

I glared at him.

"Can you stop being such an asshole for like five seconds!?" I exclaimed.

He rolled his eyes, turning his head away from me.

"I'm not a weakling, alright? You know that!" I pointed out to him. "I can help you get stronger. I can help you fight. I can help you do whatever you need to do to win against Itachi, so you should just-"

But before I could continue my rant, he flipped over on me, forcing my shoulders down into the bed and rising up over me. In less than three seconds flat, I was pinned into the bed so hard I could feel my back pressing through the mattress and against the iron-wound rusty springs.

"What did you just say?" He asked me, eyes shining with menace.

I had to back-track for almost a full minute until I realized it.

_Shit! I wasn't supposed to know that._

"I know what you want to do, okay!" I shouted, just deciding to get it over with. "I know you want to go after Itachi! I know you want your revenge!"

_And there's also something else I might know... But that's too..._

"You don't know ANYTHING about me!" He hollered. "I'm sick of you running around pretending like you're KNOW me! You don't even know the FIRST THING about me!"

I tried to speak but he was talking over me.

"Didn't I tell you already?! You never had a family! You didn't have anyone from the start! So, how the hell could you know what it feels like to be ME?!"

"Could you just shut up and let me talk!?"

"There's nothing you could POSSIBLY say that I want to hear!"

"Then stop lying!"

He paused, gripping my shoulder's harder and grinding his teeth.

"You know how I know, Sasuke!" I shouted at him. "And it's time you stopped avoiding it!"

I sighed.

"I have dreams about you, alright? And... And in those dreams... I can see everything about you. I saw your entire clan get massacred through your eyes when your brother put that jutsu on you! I've seen it almost every single night!"

He glared at me, face literally inches from mine.

"But I've also seen...your family. I've seen the picnics you used to take with your family to the edge of the waves country." I swallowed. "I've seen you and your brother playing games like hide-and-seek and piggy back riding and getting read bedtime stories together."

I closed my eyes, pressing myself to continue. Closing my eyes, I could almost see it as clearly as if it was a dream. All colorful. All peaceful and bright.

"I've seen...you practicing archery with your Dad. And you helping your Mom cook in the kitchen. And all of the Uchiha clans members... All of them smiling at you and asking about your day and giving you sweets on your way to school."

I felt my voice catching, my lips trembled.

"I've watched it so much that it bleeds into my own memories. All your sadness and all your happiness and all your anger, it feels like it's all mine. Almost like... Almost like it's my family."

I took a shaky breath.

"Like..._I_ was the one who lost them all. And I can feel how it hurts every night, too. Like a thousand different kunai knives stabbing you all at once and..." I whispered, struggling to hold back tears. "That's why... That's why, I..."

But I stopped, shocked as I felt something warm and wet drop onto my cheek. I opened my eyes. I couldn't even begin to express the surprise that shot through me as I looked up to see him. He avoided my eyes, settling for gazing to the left as another tear slid down his cheek and dropped from his chin, falling and splashing onto my cheek.

"Just shut-up, usuratonkachi..." He said quietly, voice edging on a crack. "You...don't have to say anything else."

_Sasuke..._

He let go of my shoulders. And I couldn't stop the emotion flooding me at the moment that I allowed myself to realize that Sasuke was crying to me...

I raised my hands, grabbing him and he pushed down into me willingly, wrapping his arms around me roughly. I grabbed handfuls of the back of shirt and he buried his face into my chest. I could feel the urgency...with both of us squeezing our eyes shut, and holding onto each other like there was nothing else in the world, and being unnecessarily strong-handed, scratching at each other, pulling each other's clothes, grabbing really hard.

It was probably because it was such a weird moment. So unlike us. So the roughness...in some way, it stabilized us. Because we always refused to show each other tears. It was like some kind of unwritten code in our relationship. No weakness. Ever.

_But...friends..._

He drew in a breath and I could hear the beginnings of a sob as I gripped the back of his shirt, squeezing him as hard as I could, holding him as close as possible.

_Friends are the ones that you don't need to hold back for... Like Sasuke had said to himself when he was younger, they're the ones who don't lie._

"It's okay, Sasuke... Just let it all out."

He was shaking so much it was almost like he was freezing.

_Friends are the ones who you count on to always be there for you, no matter what, no matter where, and more than all of that, friends are the ones you can show your true side, to._

I raised my hands to his hair and neck, allowing him to get the physical and emotional support he so desperately needed and wondered...

How long he had to suffer with this pain and agony balled up inside of himself? How long did he have to sit there next to the door and have people leave him empty gifts and toys? How long did he have to walk around town with people whispering about him being the "Awesome Uchiha Genius" without actually trying to see what was behind that face? That mask... And not one of these so-called "Sasuke fans" ever bothered to ask him how he felt or even give him a single hug.

I found myself smiling.

"I guess I'm...kind of glad to be the first person that could hug you." I said to him.

He shifted on me, black hair moving against my cheek.

_Sasuke... Your true side, I've finally found it._

I stayed still, allowing him all the time he possibly needed to pull himself back together, periodically rubbing his back and as my left hand dropped, lowering to his neck. I felt a strange warmth surge through me.

I blinked, feeling a chakra pulse whoosh out from me. The chakra had always been presenting, low-lying, but present. But the moment my hand moved where it did, it strengthened and as I looked around I saw a whoosh of purplish chakra spreading out and exploding around us.

Sasuke stiffened, and then raised his head. We looked at each other for a moment, both of us confused as to what was happened and then I pushed him up off me as he pulled himself away from me. Just as quickly as it formed, it vanished.

"W-What was..." I trailed off.

Sasuke was looking at his right hand, which had healed ever since that fight in the arena, but strangely it was pulsating with white sparks. I felt an weird warmth in my own left hand, and saw that it was also sparking. Then as I watched, one spark lengthened, reached out, and connected to Sasuke's sparks briefly before dying down.

_This is getting out of hand..._

Sasuke looked up at me at the same time I raised my eyes to him.

_So, now..._

"Whenever I get hurt, can you feel it?" Sasuke asked me.

I instinctively touched the hand where my fingers had almost been severed and nodded, holding my other arm out to him.

"During that fight... You electrocuted your own arm during that technique, didn't you?" I asked him. "I could feel it... It...hurt pretty bad."

He nodded.

_And you call me reckless?_

"Shut-up, I thought I'd get everyone in the attack so, it wouldn't matter whether I was damaged or not in the process." He frowned.

"_...That's why I have to perfect a technique that can run my Chidori throughout my full body. Somehow..."_

"Like a full body Chidori?"

He blinked.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"You were just talking about..." I stopped myself.

_No, wait... His lips didn't move just now._

We stared at each other. For a long time, just in complete silence.

_Okay, I'll be the one to say it..._

"Can... I mean... A-Are we... Are we reading each other's minds?"

He didn't even hesitate.

"That's impossible." He said. "This is real life."

"But I heard you say that!" I exclaimed. "I heard you say 'perfect a technique' and everything."

My mind started reeling.

"Actually... This... This has happened a lot lately, hasn't it?"

"It's impossible for-"

"Well, Sasuke, we're doing it so it has to be possible!"

_Now that I think about it, during that entire conversation we had before Sasuke's match at the arena, his lips weren't moving! But somehow, I didn't think anything of it..._

"Then, do it right now." He said. "Read my mind."

I stared at him, suddenly at a lost.

"I... I don't know how I'm doing it." I replied. "It just happens!"

"I didn't ask for an explanation. I said do it."

I sighed, staring back at him but hearing nothing.

_This jerk... He knows it's not as simple as it looks._

His eyes left mine, gaze drifting to the left.

_He's just trying to make me look stupid._

"...It wouldn't be possible to make you look dumber than you already do." He replied, gaze shooting back at me.

My heart skipped a beat.

"Wait... Really...!?" I asked, getting excited. "Did you just do it!?"

He frowned, moving his shirt and touching his curse mark.

"What the hell did you do to us, Naruto?"

I scratched my head.

"I told you already, I don't remember doing anything."

"And that's the truth?"

"Of course!" I exclaimed. "Why would I want to feel your injuries or dream about you or hear your thoughts?"

He was silent for a second, then he smirked softly.

"_...Maybe because you're just that obsessed with me."_

My face exploded into discontent.

"I'm not obsessed with you!" I shouted.

_Wouldn't that work for _you_ anyway? Crying all over me..._

His cheeks reddened deeply and he balled his fists.

"Say something like that again, and I'll murder you!"

"I didn't say anything!" I put my hands to my head.

"Then stop reading my mind!" He shouted at me.

"I thought we already said that we can't help it!" I retorted.

He sighed, opting to say nothing. I kicked my feet up, plopping back down into the bed.

"I'm serious about helping you, Sasuke..." I found myself saying.

I stared up at the dark ceiling.

"You don't have to do everything alone."

"I don't need you to feel pity for me." He mumbled, lying down next to me. "I can take care of myself."

"I didn't say you can't, but..."

I turned to him.

"If you do what you're trying to... And you fight and kill and destroy everyone around you to get to Itachi, and win against him... When everything's over, who will you have to go home to?"

His face was solemn and his eyes closed as he responded.

"I already told you... I don't have a home. That...was taken by that man."

_But you have to be interested in getting a new home. There's no way you aren't..._

Suddenly, something occurred to me.

"Hey, Sasuke... In one of the dreams I had, you were younger and, well, you were all upset about the villagers leaving gifts at your door because they only came because 3rd Hokage sent them."

"What of it?" He mumbled.

"You said then 'at least there's one person who doesn't pretend to care about me'..." I reminded him. "...Who were you talking about?"

I'd tried to revisit that dream, because he said the name aloud to himself. I know he did. But my control over my dreams didn't work that well, even if I wanted 'something painful' I was subject to seeing different painful things every time, more often than not, it was the moment where Sasuke pushed the door open to his parent's bedroom and found them both dead at Itachi's feet. Most likely, because that was the most painful memory he had. But I was only able to see that specific memory once.

Sasuke's head turned to me slowly. His dark eyes shinned in the candle light.

"Shouldn't that be obvious to someone who can read my mind?"

I blinked at him, dully.

"But you're not thinking of the answer right now." I complained.

He sighed, rolling over and saying nothing. I frowned, directing my eyes toward the candle light, considering mocking him with the fact that I knew he used to be afraid of the dark, when it suddenly came to me like a whisper. Inside my head, right as I was closing my own eyes to sleep, I heard it...

"_...It's _you_, Usuratonkachi..."_

And those few seconds, right before I moved into unconsciousness, I found myself smiling.

_Heh... I _knew_ it._

**Sasuke**

"Sasuke-kun."

Someone was shaking me softly.

"Sasuke, wake up please..."

I opened my eyes slowly, not finding it difficult at all to retain the memory of the dream I had just been having. After I began actually wanting to remember, more and more stuck with me each time I woke.

"Sasuke, come on, we have to hurry!"

I raised my head, surprised to see that sometime during the night I'd fallen asleep with my head on Naruto's chest, and turned over.

"What?" I asked.

"You're in danger." She reported. "We have to tell Lord Orochimaru straight away."

I sat up, looking at her directly.

"In danger of what?"

"I can feel an enemy presence coming... Fast."

_That's right... This girl is of strategic importance._

She darted over to the metallic door and began banging on it loudly. The sound startled Naruto.

"What's going on?" He mumbled sleepily.

_But what kind of enemy presence could she be sensing? Is it Itachi or...?_

Naruto shot up into a sitting position like a rocket.

"Itachi's coming?" He asked.

_Shut-up. _

He frowned at me. My gaze lifted to Karin who continued banging on the iron door, trying to alert Kabuto, most likely.

_Can you hear me?_

He nodded, showing he had heard.

_In the worst scenario, they might move us. If we play our cards right, this is a perfect opportunity for you to get out of here._

"_...I already said I'm not leaving without you."_

_I don't care what you said! If we both try to escape, we'll end up having to split up somewhere along the way anyway. It makes more sense for you to go and for me to stay, I'm the one they want anyway._

"_...Huh? ...What did... All that..."_

I sighed.

Even though trying to read each other's minds wasn't necessarily chakra draining, it was tiring in the fact that we weren't very good at it yet. Firstly, we could only make it work with conscious thought. The kind of thought that a person can hear themselves thinking and can remember that they thought. But something unconscious or underlining, like involuntarily reading a sign or judging the kind of person someone was, was completely impossible for us to hear. It really put a thorn in my side because Naruto wasn't a very self-aware person so the majority of his thoughts were involuntary and so, I couldn't catch them.

Secondly, long phrases, like the one I'd just tried to do, could go in and out of focus like radio waves. Over the past week of trying to see what other "powers" we had contrived along with mind-reading, we'd gotten better at hearing each other's "paragraphs" but not well enough for it to work every time. And then, there was also the fact that we'd just become understandably conscious of each other's thoughts to the extent that we began playing around with it only a week ago. All sorts of communication mistakes happened on a regular basis.

"_...I'm staying with you."_ He thought again.

_No. Listen to me, you have to use Karin to get back to Konoha._

But as the door creaked open and his attention turned to that, I knew he didn't hear my entire thought. Kabuto and Orochimaru both strode in with vaguely humorous expressions.

"Oh, damn. I thought Sasuke finally killed him." Kabuto said.

"I suppose it was a false alarm." Orochimaru replied, chuckling.

"_...These guys make me sick."_

"I'm sensing enemy's approaching, Lord Orochimaru. It's an urgent matter." Karin spoke up.

Kabuto and Orochimaru turned to her quickly, all jokes gone from their faces. I watched her, not being able to deny the slight awe that I felt at how easily she commanded their attention.

"You may continue." Orochimaru told her.

"I believe there five ANBU ninja patrolling the surrounding areas. One of which is dangerously close."

"Which direction?" Orochimaru questioned.

"The south."

Orochimaru and Kabuto exchanged glances.

"Lock up and let's move on. All of the experiments here are mostly failures anyway, even if they discover a way to get in, it won't be harmful to us."

As Naruto and I slid out of the bed, Kabuto turned around and dashed off down the hall.

"Karin." Orochimaru called. "Take Sasuke and the other one to the North hideout and keep a careful eye out for anyone from the Leaf Village."

"Yes."

He walked off, going after Kabuto and only a second later we could hear chants coming toward the corridor signaling them performing some kind of jutsu over the hideout.

Karin darted over to me, grabbing my arm and tugging me forward.

"Let's go."

I followed after her and Naruto ducked after me, neither of us having enough time to put on shoes or our shirts. We ran into the corridor, making a right, then a left, and then another right.

She stopped at a narrow gap in the wall and performed a couple of hand-signs, quickly, as soon as she finished, the gap burst open and the floor began to push us up, tossing all three of us out into a marshy patch of grass.

"Where to next?" Sasuke asked.

"We need to get to higher elevation, so we can see clearly the direction they're coming from." She said, pausing to hike her shirt further up her thighs.

I glanced over at Naruto to see his eyes lowering down her enormously exposed back and rolled my eyes.

_She's your cousin._

He smirked.

"_I heard _distant _cousin..."_

"In any case, we're going to head North." She said, pointing at a large gap in the forest that seemed to lead on an incline.

Naruto shielded his eyes from the sun and looked up.

"Nice work out." He commented, already breaking out into a run.

I darted after him and Karin followed closely behind. We ran next to each other, feet crunching on the leaves, grounding them into the soil like useless, secondary beings, in a simultaneous rhythm.

We slowed down slightly allowing Karin to pick up speed and run in front of us to direct us.

The canopy of leaves above us protected us from the direct steam of sunlight but through patches here and there, I enjoyed the warming on my face.

"I really missed being outside!" Naruto exclaimed. "That hideout place isn't in my nature at all!"

My eyes flicked up, settling on the girl with the hot pink, red hair.

_For Orochimaru to trust her with taking us both to an entirely new hideout... She must almost be on prison guard level._

"Just a little bit longer until we get to the top, then I'll be able to see clearly how we should go about getting to the Northern hideout." She called down to us.

_Or maybe she was already on prison guard level. And we're just such important prisoners that she was literally assigned an in-room job._

"_...Toldja she was our babysitter."_

Naruto grinned at me.

_Stop invading my mind without permission!_

We ran up the rest of the way and as the land began to stabilize and flatten out, Karin slowed into a jog, pausing on a high patch of land by a single tree.

Her eyes flicked around quickly and she pointed.

"There... That's the enemy." She said, then she turned to the opposite direction. "If we keep going for two or three days, after we cross the mountains out there, it'll be easy to get to the Northern Hideout."

"Three days?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, it's the North hideout! We're at the South one. What do you expect, airhead!?"

"We're gonna have to walk like a thousand miles!"

"500 to be exact." She corrected him.

He groaned loudly, and turned back around, shielding his eyes against the sun.

"The enemy doesn't even look like they're that close."

"They're fast." Karin pointed out. "I could sense them coming in from fifteen miles off. And it feels like whoever it is, is pretty smart too. They moved in an irregular way, so it was really hard to track them."

"Karin." I said turning to her. "Why do you follow Orochimaru?"

She raised her eyebrows.

"...What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're clearly capable of making it on your own." I explained. "Why depend upon him?"

"He rescued me." She said simply. "When everyone was dead... He was the one who came."

_...The one who came?_

She fidgeted with her shirt.

"I waited for...three weeks." She nodded, along with her words. "I counted the days. But...no one else came."

She looked up at me.

"I mean, it's clear he doesn't have the best approach to life but..." She pointed at me. "You're the same, aren't you?"

She brushed her bright hair out of her eyes.

"You want to stay because he came for you, too."

_Someone that came for me..._

I glanced at Naruto, but it seemed like he wasn't listening to us at all, he was holding onto the tree, gazing down at the intruder.

"That person... The one who comes for you..." I began. "It's important to discern whether or not that person is coming with true kind intent or if they're just bringing empty gifts and promises."

She adjusted her purple rimmed glasses.

"Empty...gifts?"

"Has Orochimaru ever cared for you specifically?" I asked her. "Has he ever asked you how it felt to be the last of your clan or tried to empathize with your feelings or even..."

I smiled, not believing what I was about to say.

"Or even given you a hug?"

She blinked, seeing utterly baffled.

"...Can he even _give_ hugs?" She asked me.

I looked off, past her toward where she said the North Hideout was.

"I didn't come here for him." I told her. "I didn't come here because he found me. I already... I already had someone that found me."

_Someone like..._

I turned toward Naruto again, he was still standing there, clutching the branch but this time my eyes went over his facial expression and I found I didn't like what I saw.

"What's wrong?" I asked him, walking over.

I followed his eyes, looking at our 'intruder' and our eyes widened.

"He...came for us." Naruto said. "He..."

A man with white-hair was running quickly toward the hideout, jumping from branch to branch.

"Ero-Senin." He said.

I turned to Naruto, feeling another breeze come by and lift his blonde hair off of his forehead. I took in the appearance of his sunken cheeks, smudged with dirt and whatever else from how little they fed and maintained us, his bare chest, where his ribs had already begun to show, his palm, where, because of the daily experiments, the skin had begun to resist growing back.

He turned to me, grasping my hand.

"Sasuke." He whispered to me. "Everyone... Everyone's probably at home in the village, waiting for us."

He gripped it harder.

"Sakura-chan and Kakashi-Sensei..."

I couldn't help but envision them in my head. Sakura with her long, flowing pink hair smiling widely at me and Kakashi with that book he always read and some lesson to teach us.

"Let's go home." Naruto whispered.

But like lightning, the vision that struck in my head, shattering it, cracking it, causing discontent was...

_"...If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live in an unsightly way... Run, and cling to life, and then some day, when you have the same eyes as I do, come before me."_

"Don't think about that." Naruto said to me. "I told you I'd help you, I told you that I'd-"

I shook my head, pulling my hand away from his.

"It's my job alone." I said.

Naruto's eyes flicked back to that man... Jiraiya... Along with Orochimaru, he and the fifth Hokage all made up the legendary senin.

Anytime I would look for happy memories that Naruto had, a good amount of them would be with him. Eating popsicles and hearing stories about how to lead your life and remove evil from the world and I could tell... I could tell it all meant so much to him. A guy having gone through twelve years of his life without so much as a pet to hold at night. He idolized that man like he was his father. And because of our meshing memories, my heart pulled toward him and I felt a strange connection to the man, also, but...

"I devoted my life to killing that one man." I told Naruto. "Nothing is going to stand in my way."

"He's getting close." Karin said. "We should hurry."

"He's the one who 'came to save you' isn't he?" I asked Naruto.

Karin paused in her urgency and looked down at the man she called the 'intruder'.

"_He_...rescued Naruto?" Karin repeated.

"You should go home." I continued. "And stop worrying about me. There's nothing wrong with having a different path in life."

Naruto smiled. And he turned back to me. As he did, the sun rained down on his bright blonde hair, causing the tips of it to almost sparkle.

"You're this close to me and you still don't get it?" He asked.

"What are you talking about?"

"Ero-Senin didn't find me." He said, throwing his hands up behind his head. "I found him. And I also found Sakura and Kakashi before they ever even noticed me..."

_That's right, Naruto, you..._

Somehow I'd forgotten, even though the majority of memories I'd chosen to dream about from Naruto were "happy" ones because his painful ones were almost unbearable. But in those happy memories, in addition to that man, there were also dozens and dozens of memories of...me. Even if the full memory was of an argument we'd had, or fighting against me in the academy or even just walking past me sitting alone at the dock, they were all happy memories to him. I couldn't understand it until...

"I didn't really need someone like you did. Someone that didn't 'pretend to care'. I couldn't even find someone who _did _pretend to care, you know? Since everyone hated me and all..." He looked down. "All I really wanted was to feel like I belonged. And even though you didn't really do anything..."

He grinned up at me.

"You never treated me like I was any different from anyone else. While everyone else hated me because I was a demon or a monster or a freak, you hated me because I was annoying. It just such a normal reason that, I..." He laughed. "I really hated you and I really liked you at the same time."

_How...stupid._

"So... I can't go home without you. Because...without you there, it's not home."

"_...And even more than that, everyone back in Konoha has each other. But you'd be here all alone. I refuse to leave you by yourself, Sasuke. I know what that's like and I'll never let it happen to anyone else!"_

I blinked, surprised that I could actually hear that entire "paragraph" thought but also even more surprised at what he said.

"Usuratonkachi." I sighed. "You're always making things difficult to suit your own desperation. But none of it matters... It doesn't change my path-"

"Ero-Senin's a great ninja, too, you know." Naruto went on. "Back then, Itachi and that weird shark guy even seemed afraid of him."

I raised my eyebrows, recalling the moment that they clashed... After I was easily cut down by him.

"Who knows Ero-senin might even be able to help you more than this snake weirdo!"

I rolled my eyes not wanting to listen but for once, he was actually making sense.

Without him and his key to the curse mark on me, there was no telling what Orochimaru would do. Keep me captive until they could take Naruto again? Find Naruto and try to kill him? The stupid tie he had created with his seal forced us to have to be together no matter what decision we made. Even though I'd rather continue to be separate from Konoha, because near the village they would impede my trek to kill Itachi, it had become incredibly dangerous to remain in Orochimaru's care.

He reached out for me again, grabbing my arm and yanking hard.

"For the guy who's supposed to be 'the smart one', you're really stupid!" He shouted. "I'm not taking no for an answer, so just come on!"

"Who said you had a choice?!" I exclaimed, stumbling as he pulled me back down the hill.

I glanced up at Karin, standing there, looking down at us with a torn expression. I jerked away from Naruto.

"Wait." I said, going back up to her.

She shook her head as I neared, putting her hands on her hips.

"No." She said.

"You didn't even hear what I had to say."

"You want me to come with you, right? The answer is no."

"Because you think Orochimaru cares about you?"

She stared at me for a long time and then crossed her arms.

"Even if he doesn't, this is where I belong now, so-"

"Karin, I need you."

Her eyebrows rose, she adjusted her glasses and stammered.

"S-Sasuke... W-What...?"

"I can't find Itachi alone." I clarified.

She sighed exaggeratedly and shook her head. I took her actions for irritation and probed her further.

"If you want to go back to Orochimaru afterwards, then you can do so." I said.

"You know as well as I do, that would be suicide." She replied. "Right now, you're basically asking me to sacrifice my life for you."

I nodded seriously.

_At least she understands._

"So, will you do it?" I asked.

She sighed.

"Well, if you must beg..."

"Good." I said, beckoning to her to follow me.

"But who is this guy we're going with anyway?" She asked, trudging down the hill.

"Only the most awesome frog-sage in the world!" Naruto exclaimed, as we neared him. "And also, he taught me basically everything I know."

"Oh, great. We're following a lunatic." Karin grumbled.

"That's what I'm saying." I mumbled.

It didn't take long for us to scurry down the hill and with Karin's pinpoint sensing skills, we advanced on him, coming from behind.

He paused, cocking his head.

"Hmmm..." He said. "Is there a...beautiful woman stalking me!?"

He jumped up and whirled around.

We stared at him.

He stared back at us.

Karin sighed.

"Is it too late to go back up the hill?" She asked.

"Good question." I replied.

"Ero-Senin!" Naruto exclaimed. "Stop acting like that!"

Jiraiya straightened up and crossed his arms.

"Why don't you stop calling me that!?"

But Naruto ran toward him eagerly, and Jiraiya's lips pulled into a wide grin as he pat his head.

"Long time no see, brat."

"Backatcha!" Naruto said. "But we have to hurry! We just escaped from Orochimaru's hideout and he knows you're coming!"

Without another second wasted, he bit his finger, pulled out a scroll and swiped it across the paper. Right in front of us, a large frog with an incredibly huge mouth, huge enough for us all to step inside, appeared.

"Come on, everyone. Go ahead inside."

"Awesome!" Naruto exclaimed, running in immediately.

"It's a frog mouth." Karin mumbled, walking after him. "It can only get so exciting."

I sighed, glancing back at the place in the trees I remembered the hideout to be and then followed with Jiraiya right behind me. In seconds, the frog collapsed and shrunk, looking like an ordinary frog as it jumped onto a lily pad and then dove into the water.


	3. Chapter 3

**Jiraiya**

"This is amazing, Ero-Senin!" Naruto exclaimed.

I watched as he all but submerged his face into the steaming bowl of beef ramen in front of him, slurping noisily and even licking fallen food up off the table.

"Do you even know the meaning of grace?" Sasuke asked.

"...What?!" Naruto asked, licking all around his lips. "I was starving!"

"Literally starving, too!" I joked. "You guys look like you've seen death."

"We did." Naruto said, tilting the bowl slightly. "He locked us up in a dungeon for 47 whole chalk lines."

"Chalk lines?"

The red haired girl sitting on Sasuke's other side rolled her eyes.

"He means six weeks." She replied.

It was the first words she'd said the entire time, so I turned my interest to her.

"And may I ask how you got involved in all this?"

"She's Sasuke's girlfriend." Naruto replied offhandedly, as he bent his head backwards and dropped the rest of the food into his mouth.

Karin immediately reached around Sasuke and shoved him as he was slurping causing him almost to choke.

"T-That's a total lie! Sasuke and I are n-nothing like..." She exclaimed.

I smiled, watching as she glanced fervently at Sasuke, most likely trying to discern whether or not he was suspicious of her blatant lie but he was looking at Naruto. Strangely, even though neither of them were speaking, they made movements toward each other like they were.

After Naruto said what he did, Sasuke immediately looked at him, and Naruto, while eating smirked, and then Sasuke rolled his eyes and crossed his arms and Naruto began to snicker, and an irritated expression passed over Sasuke's face as he narrowed his eyes at him. That response prompted Naruto to sigh and then a smug look replaced Sasuke's frown.

_Were they stuck in that dungeon so long, they were able to create some kind of silent code between themselves?_

I would've continued trying to figure it out but a waitress walked by, swishing her hips in such a way that immediately stole my gaze.

"Hey, hey, Ero-Senin!"

My eyes shot away from the waitress and I gave him a peeved look.

"I almost forgot how loud you are. What?" I asked.

"She's also my distant cousin." He told me, then he snapped his fingers. "And that reminds me, have you ever met anyone else from the Uzumaki clan?"

I glanced at the girl they called Karin who averted her eyes from him.

_So, you're finally curious about your history, huh, Naruto?_

"No." I said shaking my head. "If my memory serves me correctly, most of them went extinct only a little while after the Senju clan did. You and her are the only ones I've ever gotten the fortune to meet."

_Well, exempting two others... A little red haired boy with an interesting eye prowess... But that person is most likely dead anyway. And a woman who just so happens to be your mother. But she, too, is gone._

Naruto's gaze drifted down to the table as he pushed his third empty bowl of Ramen away. I smiled at him.

"I thought you'd be the last person feeling like a fish out of water." I said. "Aren't you the same person who just fought for your best friend and won?"

Naruto raised his head, turning to Sasuke and grinned, throwing his arm around his shoulders.

"I sure did!" He exclaimed as Sasuke tried to push him away.

"Stop touching me!"

"Well." I said, placing my hands on the table. "We have a couple miles of walking ahead of us. Let's get an early start back to Konoha."

But as I began to stand, I realized that none of them moved. They didn't even attempt to.

_Hm. I suspected as much._

My gaze dropped upon Sasuke, who had closed his eyes and crossed his arms.

_Sasuke willingly left the village to chase after his ambition. It'd be completely out of his character for him to return._

I looked to Naruto, who was the only one who returned my gaze.

_Even if Naruto truly is Sasuke's best friend in some sick, twisted way, there's no way Sasuke would let Naruto stand in the way of his ambitions..._

I thought of Orochimaru.

_And there's also no way that man would allow anything to stand in the way of _his_ ambitions...namely an heir for his insane immortality projects. _

"Ero-Senin..." Naruto began, fingers pressing hard against the glass table. "We...can't go back to Konoha right now."

_Something incredibly unforeseen must have happened. The real question is, is it a blessing or a curse?_

I sat back down.

"Right." I said, patting the waitress next to me on the bottom. "Can you bring another round of sake to this table?"

She batted my hand away playfully.

"Coming right up." She said seductively.

I grinned, turning to watch her sashay away.

"What's so special about this guy, anyway?" Asked the girl. "Isn't he just a common lecher?"

"Yup!" Naruto exclaimed. "He's the absolute worst!"

I pulled my eyes away from the hips and thighs gathered around the alcohol bar and turned to the unimpressed children in front of me.

"Hey!" I exclaimed. "Who's 'the worst' paying for your meals!?"

Their dull expressions didn't change. I crossed my arms deciding to go for the parental approach.

"Besides, you'll understand when you're older." I said. "It's an adult thing."

"Oh please." The girl muttered.

Sasuke tapped his chopsticks on the tabled and tilted his head toward Naruto. Then, he smirked at the same time Naruto cupped a hand to his mouth and struggled to hold back laughter.

_They're doing it again._

"Excuse me, here is your extra sake." The woman said walking up.

I slowly took my eyes off Naruto who sat directly in front of me in the outer part of the booth and nodded, reaching to take my cup from the waitress. As I reached, my hand extended a bit further, pushing the cup off the tray.

It topped over, crashing down onto Naruto's hand where it shattered.

"Ow!" Naruto exclaimed, pulling his right hand back.

My eyes flicked over to Sasuke as his right hand balled into a fist and almost in complete unison, they both reached over with their left hand and massaged a spot on the back of their hands. But in Naruto's case, there was actually a piece of glass sticking up there where in Sasuke's there wasn't.

_And this, too, is strange._

"OH! My apologies, sir!" The woman exclaimed.

"Oh, it's my faulty fingers!" I declared, laughing loudly. "Might've had a bit too much to drink."

"A bit? Wasn't that your third one already?" Karin muttered.

"Stop injuring yourself so often." Sasuke said to Naruto in a way that, strangely, sounded as if he were complaining.

Naruto succeeded in removing the piece of glass from the back of his hand and turned his hand over, pretending to attempt to stab it into his palm. As Sasuke reacted by instinctively closing his hand, as someone who was about to be injured might do, I noticed something.

_Is that a curse seal on Naruto's hand?_

"I'll get you a new drink and bandages for the boy straight away!" The waitress offered after succeeding in cleaning up the mess.

"Don't worry about it!" I told her. "I shouldn't be drinking anymore and the boy's a ninja. He can handle himself."

"Yup!" Naruto exclaimed, lifting his hand to point at his headband but poked his forehead instead.

He frowned, rubbing his head and sighing and the woman walked away. I smiled, reaching into my pocket.

"Looking for these?"

Naruto's face lit up as two navy blue headbands dangled in front of his face.

"You got 'em?!" He exclaimed, reaching.

I pulled my hand back, putting them back in my robes.

"First, you have to answer some questions."

Naruto re-seated himself, shrugging.

"Sure, whatcha got?"

"Obviously, he wants to know of Orochimaru's whereabouts so he can catch him." Karin said. "One for the bingo books."

"Or else, he wants to stall us until reinforcements can get here to force us back to Konoha." Sasuke said in monotone. "It's obvious his mission was one to retrieve us both."

Naruto said nothing, gazing at me head-on. I smiled, leaning back in the chair.

"You're both wrong, actually." I said. "I'm not interested in bringing Orochimaru anywhere. I gave up on that man a long time ago..."

Karin squinted her eyes at me and looked away.

"And as for Konoha, I don't necessarily answer to the village. They didn't send me on any sort of retrieval mission."

Sasuke gave me a look as if he didn't believe me.

"Then what were you doing patrolling Orochimaru's hideouts?" He asked me.

"I sensed a powerful presence peak in that general area a couple of days ago."

Karin's eyes shifted back to mine, as though she were truly listening.

"I figured it was this enemy organization I've been trying to track, the Akatsuki." I said. "So when I ran into Danzo's ANBU from Konoha's underground that were on a mission to retrieve Naruto, I told them to go back, thinking it would be dangerous for them."

"So, in short, no one else knows we're here?" Sasuke asked.

"Right." I told him.

I could see him relaxing enormously.

_That must be perfect for someone like you who wants to stay hidden, huh, Sasuke?_

Naruto frowned for some reason.

"But, wait." He said. "Why was Konoha only looking for me? Shouldn't Sasuke be-"

"He is important... Just not _as_ important." I grew serious, continuing before anyone got the change to intercept me. "As you know, Naruto, you're of militaristic importance to the village. Your absence from Konoha puts the village in danger of attack every single day."

The entire table grew silent. Sasuke's head tilted toward Naruto as Naruto glanced at him periodically, shrugging a couple times.

"You never told me that." I heard Sasuke whisper to him.

_It confirms it. Somehow, they've created a path of non-verbal communication._

"And not to mention the Akatsuki organization has the look-out for you as well." I reminded them. "Being outside of the village unaccompanied is actually more dangerous than if you would've just stayed with Orochimaru."

Sasuke balled his fists and frowned.

"...I never said_ that_ was why I wanted to help you." Naruto whispered. "It has nothing to do with him_ or_ the Akatsuki."

I recalled the trap I set up with the glass of sake.

_But not just communication. It must be some kind of life-link. Is it originating from that mark on Naruto?_

"In any case, Naruto, you have to go back whether you want to or not." I told him.

"But-" He protested.

"What about that girl that you liked so much? What was her name, Samoa, Sonoko..."

"Sakura." He corrected.

"Yeah, what about her?"

He paused, looking down at the table.

"If you keep her waiting long enough, there's no guarantee she'll be there when you get back, you know." I said airily.

Most of the reason I had chosen to say that was to gauge his response. But half of it was true, I knew far too well about keeping a female waiting and returning home to find the girl I left dead and gone and replaced with a woman that had far too much baggage to carry hers and mine, too.

_If Naruto really cares for that girl. This should be a fine test._

He frowned, seeming to really struggle within himself for the answer and then one glance to Sasuke solved all of that uncertainty.

"Sakura's strong." He told me. "We don't have to worry about her."

_Hmm..._

"Weren't you the same person screaming about becoming Hokage?" I reminded him, beginning to chuckle. "That gambling addict Tsunade's never going to let me live it down if you don't relieve her of her position one day."

He shook his head again, not even needing to look to Sasuke this time.

"I can't become Hokage yet... Not if I can't even save one friend."

_So this proves it..._

I shrugged.

"Well, if it's more important than a woman _and_ your life's goal, then I suppose it can't be helped." I stood up. "Come on, let's find a place to stay tonight."

Naruto fist pumped.

"Yeah!"

_So, there's currently something more important to Naruto than bringing Sasuke back. Does it have something to do with this strange jutsu they created together?_

"Have a good night, sir!" The women called after me.

I smiled, pausing to ask them a few honest questions circulating around what they were doing that night until I was literally yanked away from the eatery by Naruto.

"Alright, alright!" I shouted at him. "You'd think you would be happy if I found a wife!"

"You don't want a wife." Naruto complained. "You just want someone to sleep in bed with!"

The eyes of the people standing around us widened and I smacked him in the back of the head.

"Could you be any louder?" I asked him.

"Not any louder than this..." He said, then he cupped his hands around his mouth. "HEY, EVERYBODY, THIS OLD GUY HERE IS A PER-"

I grabbed him around the neck, pressing my knuckles into his skull.

"Do you want me to break every bone in your body?" I asked him. "Huh? Do you? Do you?"

He burst into laughter and shoved against me, I suspected he was trying to wriggle out of my arms, so I was surprised when he turned around and hugged me around the waist.

_Heh... This kid..._

Then, just as quickly as he did, he turned around and ran, catching up to Sasuke who was already waiting by the exit and jumped onto his back.

"Do you want me to die?" He grumbled, but he caught Naruto instead of tossing him off, allowing him to piggy-back him...if only momentarily.

_Could their friendship actually be genuine?_

But my brain immediately disavowed that thought.

_There's something going on here. And it's clearly tying Sasuke's hands. The moment I discover whatever it is and break it, he'll be long gone. That much is obvious._

I already knew how I wanted to go about figuring out what was going on. First, I needed to discover whether or not the Akatsuki had anything to do with what was happening.

It didn't take long to find a child-friendly Inn that had two vacant rooms. Karin insisted on two vacant rooms and then when I pointed out that would mean she would be the one sleeping alone, she got all nervous.

"W-Well... I never said I wouldn't want to sleep with Sasuke. Not that I do! Just that... How about YOU sleep in the room alone?!"

And when I asked Naruto if he really wanted to spend the entire night listening to _that_, he shrugged and said.

"I have to sleep in bed with Sasuke."

And then when I gave them both the obvious dazed and confused look, Sasuke slid his hands into his pockets and replied.

"It's just the way it is, now."

_What the hell did Orochimaru _do_ to them?_

I didn't get any leads until we all met up in the springs connected to the inn later that night for them all to have a bath.

"Just my luck, the inn actually has co-ed bathing and..."

Karin's eyes flicked to mine grumpily from the shadows where she lurked, refusing to remove her towel.

"...The only female here is a flat-chested child."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"

I grinned.

"Nothing, nothing!" I said airily, waiting until she looked away so I could continue glaring.

"The water's fine, Karin!" Naruto told her, as he dipped a toe in. "Come on!"

"No." She replied tersely.

"But we haven't bathed in weeks!"

Her face suddenly flushed red.

"YOU probably haven't but I did!"

Naruto gave her a disbelieving look, pulled his towel off and jumped in so ungracefully a wave of water picked up and slapped Sasuke in the face. Sasuke groaned, mumbling something inaudibly and choose to sit down on a stool near me.

"What was bathing like over there anyway?" I asked.

"It was awful!" Naruto exclaimed.

"It couldn't have been that bad." I protested.

But no one said anything, it seemed like it was a unanimous agreement that just walking around with dirt and grime stuck to you for ages was somehow the better choice.

I looked over at Sasuke who watched Naruto disinterestedly as he scrubbed his hair.

"Sasuke." I said to him.

He glanced up at me.

"So... How does it feel being a free-man?" I asked him, smirking. "Safe from ol' Snake-boy's clutches."

He didn't reply. Instead his eyes, fell away from mine, lining the bath rim.

"I'd expect you to be jumping for joy, right? Kind of how Naruto is doing?"

He remained silent.

"Wanting to get back to Konoha as fast as possible... Something like that, right?"

He flicked his towel between his fingers.

"That's...right." He finally said.

My smile disappeared.

"No... That's wrong, isn't it?" I asked. "Completely wrong."

He looked back up at me.

"Because you're still the same boy who sought Orochimaru out himself. The same boy who valued power more than he valued his comrades..." I reached into my clothes onto floor, and pulled out his headband, still shinning silver from when Kakashi had given them to me.

"_I couldn't get there in time. And now..._both_ of them are missing..."_

"The same boy who resolved to murder a kid that considered him his closest friend for the sake of all this." I tapped his headband against his thigh. "So, there's no way you could actually be happy about being stuck with him now."

He stared down at it.

"No... There's something else you have hidden up your sleeve. Something that you're getting out of this." I said to him. "And you're not fooling me. Sitting around here playing 'best friend' for Naruto's sake. So, tell me. Right now. What are you planning? And how did you get Naruto to give up everything he cares about, even becoming Hokage, for your own twisted purpose?"

"I didn't do anything to him." Sasuke mumbled. "If anything, it's what he's done to _me_."

"And does that upset you?"

"Yes." He replied, fingers curling around the headband.

"And that makes you want to get rid of him." I absolved.

He paused. Then smirked, looking up at me.

"Maybe it does..." He said. "And does that make _you _want to get rid of _me_?"

"Yes." I responded seriously. "Yes, it does."

"Hmph." Was all he said.

"You didn't tell me what you're both planning."

"We aren't planning anything." He said, eyes drifting to Naruto. "There's something I know I must do. Naruto has nothing to do with that. Take him back to Konoha if you must."

"Are you sure about that? Separating yourself from him? " I asked him. "Won't that do more harm to both of you than good?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said immediately.

"Aren't you the same boy who said it couldn't be helped to sleep in bed with him tonight? ...Surely, you only said that because there's some kind of drawback to even being _slightly_ distant from Naruto. Am I correct?"

His eyes flicked back over to me. We stared at each other. He opened his mouth slowly.

"I don't remember saying that." He said, face bold as he lied.

"Oh? Really? You don't?" I asked, then I smiled. "Maybe this will refresh your memory."

I looked up at Naruto and snapped my fingers.

"Hey, Naruto!" I called. "Show me one of those water back-flips you like doing so much."

Naruto immediately fist pumped.

"Definitely!" He exclaimed, grinning, as he dove backward.

Just like I expected, he didn't even take a millisecond to stop and notice just how close he was to the rim of the pool. His head crashed hard into the side, sounding like it could've knocked him clean out, but my eyes weren't on him.

Sasuke gritted his teeth, both hands flying up to the center of his head where he rubbed back and forth sorely.

"Damn it, Naruto! Watch where you're going, you stupid-" But then he paused, realizing how firmly I'd caught him in a trap.

He stared at me. I stared at him. And then he smirked, allowing himself to relax, and leaned back, crossing his arms.

"You actually happen to be smarter than you look." He appraised me.

"Well, I wouldn't call myself smart." I said, but then I sneered. "However, it_ is_ in a ninja's favor to be a likeable person with a lot of connections... Something you haven't seemed to have mastered well."

He sighed.

"So, what? You know that we're mentally connected."

_He confirms it._

"And clearly it wasn't something you planned. Why would you ever want to be mentally connected to Naruto, right?" I asked sarcastically.

He continued looking at the headband in his hand.

"And I can't see why Orochimaru did it either. So who did?"

_Was it the Akatsuki?_

"He did it himself." Sasuke said. "But he's such an idiot, he doesn't remember how."

_That...I did not expect. Is it a jutsu? If so, there's no way Naruto could create a mind-reading jutsu. Even Sasuke, the prodigy he is, would be way out of his league. _

Then suddenly, I remembered what he'd asked me... About that clan. The Uzukami's.

"It's seal." I said, snapping my fingers and remembering the mark on his palm.

Then, as I looked at Sasuke, I noticed the mark on his shoulder. I grabbed his neck, moving his head to the side so I could see it.

"The symbol is the same." I observed.

He turned around then.

"What?! The same? Since when..."

_Naruto's sealing heritage is finally rearing its head. The way this feels... Even stronger than the eight trigram one holding down the Nine Tails... If he truly did it, he might be a prodigy after all._

Naruto paddled through the water, wadding toward us.

_But wait... If it wasn't the Akatsuki who was around there, then what was that ferocious chakra?_

Naruto's palms slapped against the floor in front of us and he pulled his bare body out of the water.

"You're still dry, Sasuke." He pointed out. "How do you expect to get clean?"

"I'll go in when I'm ready." He mumbled.

_Unless...?!_

"Boys." I said.

Naruto had his hands on Sasuke's shoulders, five seconds away from shoving him in when they both stopped and looked at me.

"Go out onto the water and knead chakra."

Naruto gave me a confused look while Sasuke, surprisingly, stood up unquestioningly and walked out ontop of the water. Naruto, seeing his attitude, decided to save questions for later and just obey.

Their feet slapped against the surface of the water making small ripples as they assembled next to each other and put their hands together.

"GROSS!" Karin exclaimed. "Put your towel back on, idiot!"

Luckily, his towel was floating right around his feet, so before they began he picked it up.

"Alright, fine!" He shouted, exasperatedly.

"As much as you can." I said, getting up off the stool to stand directly in front of them. "As much as you can possibly hold."

Naruto grinned.

"I'm gonna blast the cap off this place."

"If I don't blast it off first." Sasuke replied.

I could see it clearly in my eyes, the amount they were both gathering. Karin leaned forward where she was sitting and adjusted her glasses, with the way her eyes were narrowing I had a feeling about her.

_She must be a sensor. That means, for this exercise, she's going to come in handy._

The water around Sasuke began spraying up, rotating around him and raising almost all the way past his waist.

_That amount of chakra that kid has is almost scary. Even for an Uchiha._

The water around Naruto rose only slightly, like it was bubbling, but I could see the chakra he was pulling out was a lot, he just didn't have any control over it, and most of it was going wasted and unused.

_Though... As a jinchurki and someone of Uzumaki descent he doesn't have to worry much about chakra expenditure._

Just as I thought that, the small amount of chakra surrounding him was suddenly accompanied by something else, something lethal. It spilled into his chakra, mixing until it became compact and when Naruto got a hold of it, he had no problem controlling it, it expelled, bursting out of him and almost perfectly matching the level of chakra Sasuke was expelling.

_That's surely the chakra of the Kyubbi within him... But how is he able to control it so easily now? Did he tame that beast at sometime?_

But with them both expelling their enormous forces, I didn't have much time to ponder that. When I ran into Kakashi coming back from the Final Valley holding the two headbands, he told me of the enormous chakra coming from that region.

"_It was them." He had said. "Those boys are really something else... Their chakra combined was almost just as large as Madara Uchiha when he was in his prime."_

But the chakra I'd felt coming toward Orochimaru's hideout was more akin to Madara Uchiha AND Hashirama Senju's chakras COMBINED.

_I was right then... There's no way any kind of seal Naruto created could've done that. _

I expelled a huge breath.

_It was a close call though. I was thinking he'd replicated_ that_ seal... The seal of legend... But no... They're just strong boys is all..._

"Alright." I said, raising my arm. "You guys can-"

But I cut myself off, Karin was standing up, walking toward them.

"You have to stop it." She said, shaking her head.

"What?"

"Stop them! Stop them right now!" She ordered me. "That... That THING inside Naruto... It's... It's going to mix with Sasuke's-"

But before she could finish her sentence, it was like the room imploded, the walls caved in and the ceiling cracked. Another long crack burst up from the ground, running right between my feet.

_Wait... I can feel it now. Something is happening._

It was like their chakra was stretching, elongating and growing larger, at first I didn't think anything of it but it was almost like a fire... Two fires burning right next to each other...and then turning, noticing each other and deciding instead to become one.

Suddenly, there was a chi-chi sound. And even though I would've categorized it as a Chidori, Sasuke wasn't performing the jutsu. Lightning was visibly flickering all around but it was like it was coming from within them, wrapping around their respective hands like gloves and periodically connecting them. I could feel their chakra warping, folding into each other and mixing and then, right before it fully mixed, it seemed like it was going to be fine. Like everything was going to become calm and die down and lay still but then...

Naruto did something strange, he stopped kneading chakra and reached over, raising his right palm and coming into contact with the mark on Sasuke's right shoulder.

"NARUTO, DON'T!" Karin shouted.

The moment flesh touched flesh, the second of calm erupted and everything burst outwards. Including myself. I was airborne, along with everything else around me and as the ground began to rumble, it caused a crack almost a good three feet deep and every single lamp light in the room exploded, glass shattering. The ceiling literally blew apart and the water around their feet shot into the air, going so far up out of the place that when they stopped kneading chakra, falling to their knees out of exhaustion, it was as if it were raining...

"I... I told you to stop them..." Karin moaned from wherever she had flown to. "I told you..."

By the time I gathered my bearings and became conscious of myself again, I discovered I was thrown so far backwards that I rammed back through six or seven solid brick walls and found myself lodged all the way back into the walkway where the hallway used to be. I groaned, not even needing to check to know that I had most likely broken multiple bones and collapsed many organs inside my body.

_Well, this was one heck of a ride._

"E-Ero-Senin?" Naruto called out tentatively.

I could hear two pairs of feet climbing out of the gaping hole that used to be the bath and sloshing through the pouring water from the sky. Part of the ceiling had caved over me and the light above my head was flickering with oil spilling and threatening to start a fire but I was alive.

I moved part of the wall, alerting them to my position and they ran over quickly.

"Are you alright!?" Naruto asked.

They both grabbed the wall and lifted it, allowing me to pull myself out from underneath.

"Yeah..." I laughed. "Did I ever tell you about the time I caught Tsunade in the bath? ...This is nothing like that..."

_This is actually..._worse_ than that. There are only two times I almost died in my life. That was one and this is the other._

"Your chest!" Naruto pointed out. "You have a huge gash on it."

But I wasn't preoccupied in thinking about my wounds, however fatal they may have been, I was too busy looking up at the thirteen year old boys standing before me in awe.

_Not only was this the chakra I was drawn to... But this is quite honestly, even stronger than the combination of the legendary ones at the Final Valley. This is...remarkable._

"Is everyone alright in here?!" A voice yelled, coming from the wall behind me.

"It seems as if we've had a lightning storm!" A woman's voice declared.

"Or maybe an earthquake?" Another voice asked. "It felt like an earthquake to me!"

Numerous concerned and frightened voices came to my ears then, but with the way Naruto and Sasuke barely responded to them, it was as if those people had always been around but I was just too into my own thoughts to hear.

_And that seal..._

Naruto's hand loomed over my face, dripping with the blood coming from my chest.

_Even though I've never seen it before, it fits the legends. _

"Hurry! Evacuate the whole building! What if it was a gas leak!?" Someone asked.

_A black ring with a black circle in the center. _

"Is there anyone injured? Help us move this wall!"

"It's not necessary." Sasuke's voice rang out. "We're all fine in here."

He and Naruto exchanged glances to which they each grabbed one of my arms and began to pull me.

_Naruto... You've really opened a can of worms this time._

**Naruto**

I was so exhausted by the time we were able to sit down and get some rest. We had to hightail it out of that inn and anywhere around there as fast as possible.

"_That chakra you unleashed. It'll be like a beacon." Ero-Senin told us. "Every sensor, surrounding ANBU and any kind of high-level ninja will be running as fast as they can to get here."_

"_I don't get it! Why would they want get near a weird chakra?" I had asked._

"_It doesn't matter if it's unfamiliar or not." He said as we ran. "It's strong. Higher-level ninja like the Akatsuki will most likely assume it's a Jinchuriki and others will just be curious to find out who it is. In any case, it's not wise for them to discover the source."_

I wanted to ask why not but we were running and I was getting out of breath already. Kneading all that chakra wasn't easy. After we dug Karin out of this crack in the wall she got smashed into, we were able to persuade her to heal Ero-Senin. Or actually, she ignored me when I said it but then when Sasuke insisted she agreed.

Since then, we headed as fast as we could north, further away from Konoha than we were at Orochimaru's hideout.

"Being near Konoha or anywhere near the Land of Fire is actually a bad idea at this point." Ero-Senin had said.

So by the time we finally stopped, we were basically on the border of our land and the next one. As proof, the valley we were in topped off with a cliff side view of a beach.

Sasuke sat on the cliff edge, one leg dangling off the side, looking out into the water. I lay on my back gazing up into the dark sky and the stars overhead.

"Sasuke... What's happening to us?" I asked, finally deciding to be the one to say it.

I actually hadn't even really let it register. Let it sink in. That somehow, someway, our kneading chakra practically destroyed a bathing house, half of an entire inn, and left a 20 feet deep, 10 foot wide crater where we were standing. I was so busy trying to make sure Ero-Senin was okay and that all of the other people staying at the inn didn't get too badly injured that I just blocked it out. I was sure Sasuke had done his best not to think about it, too, since I would've heard him if he did. But there was no hiding from it at that point.

"Sasuke." I said again, tugging on his arm.

But he was silent. I picked at my shorts.

"We could've really hurt Ero-Senin and a lot of other people. And it was all just by kneading chakra."

I sat up, allowing my eyes to trail along the beach below us and find Ero-Senin sitting by himself on a rock talking to a couple frogs. He said he had a message to send someone.

"Ero-Senin looked really weird this whole time, too..." I said. "Like there's something he's not telling us."

I frowned at the thought that Ero-Senin could be hiding something from me.

"What if this thing we're doing... What if it's bad?" I asked him. "What if it's like a forbidden jutsu?"

_But...it didn't feel bad. _

The reason why I didn't stop was because it felt peaceful somehow. Like my chakra _wanted_ to mix with Sasuke's. And then all my muscles started relaxing and I closed my eyes and it was like I was sleeping again. I didn't even realize what was happening until Sasuke thought something mean and I instinctively reached out and shoved him and when my hand touched him...everything just exploded.

I played with my fingers, straining hard to hear any of Sasuke's thoughts but his head was completely silent. It was like he wasn't thinking anything at all. I was about to make a joke about him being more "empty-headed" than I was when he abruptly turned his head right. I followed his gaze, looking down at Karin who was soaking in the water, finally deciding to take a bath now that it was too dark for anyone to see her.

"Naruto." Sasuke suddenly said.

I looked up at him, eyes widening in surprise. I had been pretty sure he was in one of those moods where I could talk for hours and he wouldn't say a word.

"What?"

"If your clan wasn't almost extinct, and you had the choice to go live with them instead of going back to Konoha, would you do it?"

Unlike normally, as he asked me this, he looked me directly in the eyes. And it was weird, it almost scared me.

_Why is his Sharingan activated right now?_

But more than the fact that he was looking at me like he was ready for battle, the look in his eyes there. I was getting so good at feeling his emotions I almost immediately categorized it as something negative...like he was torn up about something.

"Why do you want to know that?" I asked tentatively.

"Just answer me."

I tucked my knees into my chest and wrapped my arms around them.

"Well... I'd be interested in seeing them." I said. "So, I could figure out who my parents were and what I meant to them."

I turned my palm over, looking at the mark on it.

"It would also help me understand a lot of stuff about myself, too." I said. "But... But... That decision... It's almost impossible to make."

I shook my head then turned back to look at him.

"No. It would have to be both." I finally decided. "I could easily care about my real family the same way I care about my family in Konoha. I wouldn't have to choose one over the other. I could spend time with both."

I glanced back down at my palm again and brought it closer to my face.

_Did this symbol change?_

I glanced up at Sasuke, looking around to see his neck.

_Weird! His symbol is the same now, too!_

I reached for it, wanting to turn his head to be sure but he jerked away from me.

"Don't touch me!" He ordered. "Did you already forget what happened last time?"

And as I approached him, like a reminder, my right hand pulsated with white sparks of lightning, rotating around my forearm and Sasuke's left arm momentarily did the same thing before both sparks died out.

"You never answered me from before." I said to him. "Do you think we should try to stop this?"

"Yes." He said.

I squinted, listening for his under-lying voice. Those thoughts that would give away his lie but they never came. He got to his feet, brushing the dirt off his shorts but I grabbed his pocket, stopping him from walking away.

"But...didn't something feel right about it to you, too?" I asked him.

He pulled his leg forward, trying to force my hand off of him.

"And besides..." I went on. "Back then, when we were gathering chakra, I remembered something about Itachi that I think you should-"

He suddenly whipped his leg forward so hard, he could've pulled my arm out of its socket. His shorts slipped from my fingers and I almost rolled face first onto the ground. I raised my head looking up as he glared down at me, blood red eyes piercing into mine.

Then, without saying anything, he turned, sliding his hands into his pockets and walking off and as my eyes set on him, I couldn't help but feel like I was losing him again.

**Sasuke**

I was literally mentally exhausted by the time I got away from Naruto. It was taking almost every brain cell I had to bar my thoughts from his.

_That was just an experiment to see if I could successfully stop our connections._

It wasn't that I wasn't thinking. It was just that I was folding my chakra in on itself to keep it from expanding out and reaching him. With my Sharingan on, I could clearly see what was happening between us, our chakra was meshing in a way. While we were running, Karin frantically told me...

"Your chakra almost completely became one."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... Okay, your chakra, right? It normally has a kind of feel to it, like a kind of color. Yours is normally dark blue." She said. "Characteristic of really strong chakra. And usually Naruto's is a light blue but back then...it completely changed."

She shivered.

"This weird red chakra filled him. And it was like rage. Pure hatred or something..." She said. "It was really, really scary. And then, it mixed with yours and together... All your chakra was turning this vibrant purple color."

I'd seen the tints of purple before. My Chidori carrying purple highlights or purple tinges in my vision while I used my Sharingan but I never imagined it was because my chakra was constantly trying to mold into Naruto's chakra...from whatever demon was nesting inside him.

"So, what happened..." I began. "It was because of that red chakra?"

She was quiet for a moment, seeming to ponder it and then she slowly shook her head.

"Even though that chakra felt really evil... It was like... Pacified somehow." She explained. "Like a calm rage. It wasn't his chakra alone that did it, it was the result of connecting to yours."

And that was all I needed to know completely.

_If it can mold, it can un-mold._

Barricading my chakra from Naruto's protecting my thoughts and simultaneously protected his from me. I could force us to go back to normal, whether he had the mark or not. But it would take a lot of time and patience.

_The only issue is... every second I spend trying to remove myself from him felt wrong. _

I sat against a tree near up near the top of the cliff in front of a small pond. In the reflection of the water, I could clearly see my eyes, Sharingan deactivating, and the mark on my shoulder. The three tomoe that had been there had changed, blending together in a single dot circled by a ring... The same as the mark Naruto's had turned into.

_It was even more difficult than the decision to leave the village in the first place. _

I balled one of my hands into a fist, crushing a berry I'd picked up. I let the red juice run between my fingers.

The only thing I was truly thinking about when we were kneading chakra was peace and happiness. Staying stationary in those "happy" dreams of Naruto's or my own. But once he touched me, and everything exploded outwards and I realized what was happening, all those thoughts changed. In that instance, it was like I could feel every single life energy on the face of the planet breathing and moving and living. There was so much power. So much of it. And not one limitation. Anything was literally possible.

But at the same time... There was that crater in the ground and the old man bleeding and crushed by all that rubble and half of the entire inn craved in and...

_This is too much._

I had no doubt in my mind that, with Naruto and that crazy power we had, if we could harness it, his offer to help me take down Itachi wasn't just a whimsical expression of kindness or a what-if scenario, or even a bad-idea...

_It isn't just that we _could_ stop Itachi... We would... We would pulverize him. _

Any attack that we could pull of together, do together, as long as we were smart about it, it would kill him. Kill anyone. And that in itself was unnerving. That we could potentially kill _anyone_. I was someone who was all about challenge. All about having a rival. All about having something that I needed to fight for, get up for, live life for. But in a world where simply kneading chakra could bring any enemy to near-death...

"What's the point of that kind of life anyway?" I asked.

"Yes... Sasuke..."

My eyes flicked to the right, Sharingan turning on, and I realized, far too late, the rock I'd assumed was just a rock was morphing into something else.

"Yes... What is the point?"

His long black hair stuck up out of it and he slithered out, growing like a disease and he slithered out of the rock next to me.

"Sasuke-kun... It's such a pity it's come to this."

"How did you find us?"

He chucked, slithering in a snake like form over to me.

"All of my minions are like signal flares." He sneered. "Therefore, it was incorrect to believe that taking Karin with you was to your benefit."

_She's still to my benefit. ...In this situation._

"And more importantly than that, you and Naruto did something earlier." He went on. "That, too, was like a signal flare."

His body move past me and into pond, once touching it, his form solidified and he was able to stand atop the water.

"I know Jiraiya and what decision he would make once something like that happened." He said, still smirking. "Which is remove you both as far away from the village and that site as possible. All I had to do was move accordingly."

I leaned backwards as he bent over, pushing his face right into my line of sight.

_It's like it makes him happy when he knows people are disgusted by him._

"Don't tell me you're thinking what I think you are."

I remained silent but I didn't panic. It had been a long time since I was afraid of him. Especially since I knew that he needed me but I in no way needed him.

"You're thinking that, perhaps, you'll just stay with Naruto, aren't you?" He seethed. "And you'll use this strength that he grants you to complete your goal."

He narrowed his eyes at me.

"You're considering taking the easy way out. Finding a less dangerous path. Are you that frightened of Itachi?"

"I'm not afraid of anything."

"Then are you going back on your prior decision?" He asked. "Are you_ that_ weak?"

"No."

"Are you lacking your hatred for Itachi?"

I gritted my teeth.

_Never that. I'll loathe that man even after I die. _

"It's obvious, isn't it, Sasuke? You're considering defeating Itachi with the help of another." He snickered. "How pitiful. That the last living heir of the clan cannot redeem it alone."

My fingers sunk into the dirt, gripping it.

"You're failing, Sasuke." He whispered, sinking down into the pond. "At this rate, you won't defeat Itachi...or restore your clan...or even be an appropriate protégé for me."

His dark greenish yellow eyes shined out at me before he disappeared.

"You'll be nothing but Naruto's pet for as long as you live..."

The moon shimmered against the pond as the ripples from his sinking head reached out and went still. Then suddenly, there were loud footsteps crunching hurriedly against leaves and kicking rocks and dirt. Ungracefully. Without even thinking, I knew who it was. As if I could feel his particular life force.

"How did you find me?"

His feet stopped next to me and he looked around frantically.

"I... I don't know. I was falling asleep and then I... I just...felt you." He answered, walking around. "What I felt was like...an alarm. Like you were in danger."

_It must've been then. When Orochimaru first appeared and startled me. Somehow, that shock, and perhaps the underlying desire I had to escape from him alerted Naruto._

"Orochimaru?!" Naruto exclaimed. "He was here?"

I could feel the beads of sweat collecting at my neck and making their way down my back as I rose to my feet. I started walking...back through the trees and up the hill and he followed, watching me curiously with his hands behind his head.

"_...Sasuke, why don't you want to talk to me?"_

He wasn't looking at me and his lips didn't move so it was obvious it was a thought I'd heard that somehow got through even though I had my Sharingan on and was trying again to disconnect us. At that point, I turned it off. And as we got to the edge of the cliff over-looking the beach where Karin slept in the sand all the way to the left of one side, I allowed myself to think.

_Naruto, I thought we were rivals._

His eyebrows furrowed.

"_...We are."_

_Then answer me this. What's the point of being a rival with someone who you need to borrow your strength from?_

"_You don't borrow your strength from me. What happened... That was because we put our chakras together. Right?"_

Then he reached out and grabbed my arm.

"Actually, there's something I've been dreaming about. Something I want you to see, too. I think if we get closer, I can show it-"

_Do you think I really want to get any closer to you!?_

"_But I'm thinking Itachi might be-"_

_DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT HIM!_

He froze, fingers slipping from my arm momentarily. Maybe it was something he was seeing. Something in my eyes but he frowned, gritting his teeth and jumping into me. My back slammed against the ground and he raised his fist above my face, already raging.

"_What the hell is wrong with you suddenly?!"_

_I don't need your help! I don't need ANYONE to do ANYTHING for me! I'm not weak!_

"_I never said you were!"_

_Then LET GO of me!_

I grabbed his fist, Chidori sparking in my other hand as I did.

"_You're pissing me off, Sasuke!"_

_I don't need anyone to tell me what to do! I don't need anyone to control me!_

"_I'M NOT TRYING TO CONTROL YOU, BAKASUKE!"_

He caught my arm just as I was about to thrust my Chidori hand up and through him.

"_I never said I wanted to control you! All I want is to be WITH you while you decide what YOU want to do!"_

He shoved me further down into the grass.

"_But you're such a paranoid idiot, you don't even understand what it means to have a friend!"_

_...A friend?_

I shoved his hands off me and averted my eyes from him while letting my head fall back into the grass, gazing up at the leaves above our heads.

_Naruto, if you're sick of me, then-_

"_I never said I was sick of you! I'm not giving up. No matter how hard you try to push me back or how long you fight to pull away from me, I'm not going anywhere, you bastard!"_

And then oddly, after a couple silent moments, he smiled.

"_Because I'm a clingy, emotional-wreck... Right?"_

I stared at him for a moment and then let go of him, spreading my arms out.

_That's right..._

"You said before... That there's nothing good about being someone who loses everything." He whispered. "But you're wrong, Sasuke..."

He stood up and ran his hand through his blonde hair.

"Because being alone doesn't make you weak at all, it makes you strong." He told me. "Really strong. Strong enough to fall a hundred times, even a million and still be able to find your own way and get back up."

He held his hand out to me.

"And no matter how long it takes for you to stop being an idiot, I'm still going to be there. I'll always be waiting for you to get back up... Forever."

_You're such an idiot._

"_Not more than you are."_

I raised my hand, extending it toward him slowly and he grabbed it, helping me up to my feet.

"What are you guys doing up so late?" A voice asked.

Almost in a simultaneous thought process, we both recognized the owner of the voice and reacted in our own ways.

I lowered my eyes to the ground, walking off in silence and Naruto whipped around, surprise crossing his face.

"Ero-Senin! Stop sneaking up on people!" He exclaimed.

"_...Was he here all along?"_

_No. If he was, he'd have stopped my meeting with Orochimaru._

But then I reconsidered that, almost smiling at my foolishness. Interestingly enough, though, Naruto beat me to the realization.

"_...Ero-Senin likes it when people make their own decisions. He wouldn't have stopped that."_

_Or more so... He dislikes _me_._

Naruto frowned and turned to me.

"_That's not true."_

"Can you guys stop... 'mind-chatting' and answer my question?" Jiraiya spoke up.

Naruto's eyes widened.

"_...He knows!?"_

_It's not like it's that hard to figure out._

"I was just..." Naruto paused.

"_I can't tell him about Orochimaru, just in case..."_

"We were just practicing." He decided on.

_You're awful at lying._

"_It's not like YOU'RE doing any talking, Mr. Silent Treatment!"_

Jiraiya's eyes turned to me.

"Practicing?"

"Orochimaru is aware of our position." I responded. "If you're worried about his influence over Naruto, I'd advise you to leave."

"_Oh great! Now you decide to speak and it's the TRUTH!?"_

Jiraiya stared at me for a long time and then he turned to Naruto.

"Go get some wood so we can make a fire near the water." He said.

Naruto groaned.

"How come I-"

Jiraiya shoved him.

"Hey! Do what I say or else I won't give you a copy of my new book!"

"No one wants your weird sexy books, Ero-Senin!" Naruto yelled before running off.

I turned, walking toward the cliff where I jumped off, skidding down the side until both feet landed firmly in the sand. Jiraiya followed close behind me effortlessly until, near the bank, I finally turned around and addressed him.

"What do you want?"

"To know the decision you're making."

"Isn't that obvious?" I asked, sitting down in the dirt.

The calm whoosh of the waves calmed my inner soul. Somewhere inside me, like some kind of strange umbilical cord, I could feel a slightly tugging. Alerting me whenever Naruto got too far away.

"_I wonder how big this fire wood needs to be..."_

And not only was our connection getting stronger in that soon, I was sure we'd be able to pinpoint each other's exact locations, but I could hear his thoughts over larger distances and when he was near me, our thought-communication was almost flawless.

"_I bet Ero-Senin's giving you the third degree, huh, Sasuke? Toldja you should've lied..."_

_Shut-up._

Even with my Sharingan being able to stop our mental communication, Naruto could still sense my emotions and pinpoint my location. Despite everything Orochimaru had said, with that still being a possibility...

"I can't leave Naruto even if I want to." I told him.

"And do you want to?"

"Of course, I do."

"Hmm." He said, squatting in the sand next to me. "Somehow, I didn't think Kakashi's pupil would grow to be so difficult with friends."

"Spare me the pity." I muttered. "I'm in no mood."

"I'm not concerned about what mood you're in." He said. "But you need to make a decision now. Are you a threat to Naruto or not?"

"Killing him would most likely kill me, too, at this rate."

"That didn't answer my question." He said. "Are. You. A. Threat?"

I smirked.

_That's smart of him... He realizes that there's a difference between being a threat to someone and planning to kill them._

"_Well, duh. Sasuke."_

_Can you just shut-up?_

"Wouldn't it be best for both of us to die anyway?" I asked him. "You witnessed it yourself. Two thirteen year olds with the power to destroy the entire world. That in itself is a threat."

He smiled at me.

"You're almost better at slinking around someone's question than Orochimaru." He appraised me. "But I'm not worried about the world. I'm worried about my pupil."

"Because you feel obligated to? Since he sees you as something like a father..."

"No. Because I actually care about him."

I pushed my toes further into the sand, feeling the ocean spray up in my face.

"Why did you ask us to knead chakra?" I wanted to know. "You were trying to do an experiment. What did you discover?"

He chuckled.

"So, you won't answer my question but you expect me to answer yours?" He asked.

_You need me, Jiraiya. I don't need you..._

"_Someone who had an actual 'fan base' as a kid always acts like a self-righteous bastard."_

_Keep talking, and I'll block you out with my Sharingan again._

"_Hahahaha."_

"I'm not a threat to Naruto." I muttered. "If anything, he's a threat to _me_. To my goal. To my life. To my entire drive as a human being."

"What? Your whole 'avenger' thing?" He asked humorously. "Only children can model their entire lives after an emotion."

"It's not an emotion. It's a way of life."

"Exactly. That's something a child would say." He explained. "It's as if you can't see any situation that being an 'avenger' won't save you from. It's like it doesn't exist."

"It doesn't."

"So how does being an avenger save you from this Chakra Connection Seal?" He asked.

I was silent. The waves continued to whoosh.

"You need to be more flexible with your 'way of life' if that's what it is." He said. "Sometimes that works, but other times other things work. You can't be all avenger and never listen. Just like you can't be only a listener and never an avenger."

I rolled my eyes.

"You sound like Kakashi." I grumbled.

He laughed.

"Who do you think taught him?"

_Just my luck. I'm listening to a Super-Kakashi. _

"_Hehehehe. Yup! That's basically Ero-Senin for you! He has the Super-Pervert part down, too!"_

But what he was saying made at least some sense to me. It was true, as far as I could see, that rigid thinking was only a fast way to death. If I was going to defeat Itachi, I was at least going to need to master that. But thinking of flexibility reminded me of something else.

"You said 'Chakra Connection Seal'." I remembered. "Is that what this is? Is that what you discovered?"

He looked out onto the waves.

"I'm not sure. I've only heard of it legends. Those kinds of legends you think is just a bedtime story."

"Explain."

"Well, you've heard of the sage of the six paths, right?"

"Of course. He's the grandfather of old wives tales."

"The thing is... There's big reason to believe he actually wasn't a wives tale."

I smirked.

"Yeah, right. A 'God-like Being' who created everything?" I said. "That's-"

"We're going for flexibility, remember?"

I sighed, opting to say nothing.

"In any case, the classic legend is that the sage created Ninjutsu and spread the teachings of strength and individuality."

"What do you mean by that?"

"That the strong persist." He explained. "And in turn are crushed by the weak and helpless."

_Of course... That's what this whole system was built upon. That's why we're ninja. To use our power to rule and dictate to the weak how to live or watch them all burn._

"_...There needs to be a world where people truly understand each other."_

_You're just spouting whatever this old man tells you without thinking._

"_He believed in me. So, I believe in him, too."_

"But there's another tale. That what the sage truly created was Ninshu." He explained. "And he went around spreading the teachings of fellowship between man and cooperation."

"Which is basically the opposite, right? Instead of individuals making it to the top...everyone does."

"Exactly. Ninshu. THIS is a true way of life."

I frowned at his blatant mocking of my previous statements but couldn't find anything to say against it.

"In all of the old scrolls that talked about it. Scrolls that Hashirama Senju possessed in the Hokage Manor, the symbol that you both have printed on you was present in one shape or form." He smiled. "Actually, that was the only thing in those scrolls that really stuck out to me. For some reason, I just really liked the style. Unlike me, however, Orochimaru was really interested in the words. So, I'm sure, he even knows more about it than I do."

"Orochimaru?" I repeated.

He chuckled.

"The one who told me about that tale was him, actually. Then we read the legends together. Even though it doesn't seem possible, there was a time when even Orochimaru believed in people." He told me. "Before his parents died, and he chose the solitary, ambitious path he did."

He sighed.

"At this point, he probably doesn't even remember the person he was when he made that choice. All that matters to him is being the best, and now he's spending the rest of eternity fighting a battle that's all in his head."

_Being the best... Solitary, ambitious path..._

"_Hey, that sounds just like you, Sasuke!"_

I frowned.

"Is that why you're talking to me?" I asked him. "Because I reminded you of your twisted childhood friend?"

He laughed.

"Well, you do remind me of him. The place you are is the exact same place he was before I lost him forever." He said quietly, then he smiled. "But that's not why I decided to speak to you."

"Then-"

"I'm taking the time to speak to you, and also to Naruto, because I still believe..." He looked up at the stars. "I believe in the people."

I followed his eyes, gazing up at the stars too.

_The people?_

"_Toldja ya."_

"I'm going to block you." I threatened under my breath.

"I guess the signal from Naruto's thoughts is pretty strong."

I stared at him questioningly and then sighed.

"Of course. That's the reason you told him to go." I realized. "You weren't trying to separate us, you were trying to see how far our range was."

"It seems to be pretty far, too." He commented. "I purposely hid all the firewood about two and a half miles from here."

He turned to me.

"Can you keep a marker on where he is?"

I rose to my feet.

"It grows stronger when I can hear him thinking. But right now, I can feel a constant pull alerting me every time he wanders more than a quarter of a mile."

I let my eyes move over the trees.

"He's that direction." I said, pointing south. "Only about twenty meters away."

"Can you actually see him?"

"No." I replied. "But sometimes, I can see through his eyes."

I closed my eyes, not really sure how to start it but the longer I kept my eyes closed, the more something came into view.

"_What are you doing?"_

_Switch places with me._

"_Wait, I'm-"_

_Just do it. I'm trying to see the extent of our powers._

"_But-"_

And then, I opened my eyes and looked around at the dark forest surrounding me.

_Well, this actually isn't that hard. _

It was in a lot clearer focus than the times we'd done it by accident and I could actually move in his body. I lifted a hand, flexing the fingers in front of my face.

_These powers are strange... They're incredibly strong but not at all difficult to wield. If all of those old tales Jiraiya was talking about are actually fact, the only reason an ancient user of this "way of life" would discard it is if power and pride were truly the only important things to them._

I frowned as that thought came to mind.

_Similar to my own thoughts. What's the purpose of life without winners or losers? Things that you can never have and people that you can never catch up to... A life that boring... Is that even life?_

I still wasn't sure but I did certainly know one thing...

"_I did it simply to test my vessel..."_

Pride was what destroyed me and killed my people. So even if I was willing to become the monster I so despised to destroy the previous monster, now that I had a secondary option... I vowed to oppose any being who was completely self-interested.

Suddenly, as I pulled myself out of my deep thoughts, I became aware of the steady sound of a something liquid hitting the base of a tree right in front of me.

My eyes jerked down, realizing that Naruto's pants were lowered and he had been in the process of...

_WHAT THE HELL, NARUTO?_

"_I really had to go!"_

I immediately lost control of his body, not that I wanted to keep it, and swapped out with him, settling back into my own body.

As I became aware of the senses around me, Jiraiya was rolling around in the sand laughing his head off, cracking jokes about 'peeing vicariously' and 'forget blood brothers, you've invented piss brothers'.

I sighed, watching as Naruto finally made his way down the bank, with his zipper still undone, and a gigantic grin on his face. As I stood there, scowling at everyone around me, I couldn't help but wonder if it was too late to catch up with Orochimaru.


	4. Chapter 4

**Naruto**

It was really easy to fall asleep on the beach. Without wearing a shirt or shoes and feeling the nice cool breeze with the stars above and the blazing fire warming me up as soon as it got too cold. I was dreaming as soon as I closed my eyes. But I woke up pretty quickly. To a hand on my face.

"_Naruto..."_

I blinked, moving my head. I looked right, seeing Karin lying with her back facing me, silhouetted by the dying embers of the fire, and then looked up into the face of my intruder.

_What?_

"_You said you wanted to show me something."_

I rolled over, getting into a sitting position and nodded.

"_Show me. Now."_

_Why so late?_

"_Because I said so."_

_You're always so damn pushy._

But I stretched and yawned and opened my eyes fully. It was almost completely pitch black since the fire had died. I could hear the waves, feel some of it if I reached far out to the right, but I couldn't see them. I couldn't even see Sasuke right in front of me.

"_So, how are you going to do it?"_

_Sit in front of me._

I could hear him positioning himself to sit cross-leggedly just like I was and I pushed myself as close as I possibly could be to him, close enough so that our knees touched.

"_And now what?"_

I reached out for him, running my hand up his shoulder.

Because I could feel his emotion, I suddenly got a strong sense that he was flustered or something.

"What are you doing?!" He demanded to know.

_Think, don't speak. Everyone's sleeping._

"_Stop giving me orders."_

_I need to find your mark, so hold still._

"_You don't have to touch all over me for that."_

I ignored him, moving his hair to the side so I could place the curse mark on my palm over the one on his shoulder.

_Okay. Now, come closer._

"_This is getting weird."_

_Hey, _you_ woke _me_ up!_

But he listened to me, moving his head closer and I moved mine closer to his until our foreheads pressed together.

"_How do you know this is what we're supposed to do anyway?"_

_I don't know... I guess it just feels right._

"_Of course."_

_You're the one that asked for this, Sasuke. Speaking of which... Why now?_

"_Because certain things don't work all the time. Some things work some times and others, other times. You have to be a flexible person so you can catch all of the possible opportunities. Inflexible people are the ones who are self-centered and prideful. I can't allow myself to act like the same kind of person who destroyed my life. But at the same time, I can't see any punishment more fitting. So, I have to go back to the drawing board to gather information. I have to make sure the way of life I chose to solve this problem is the correct one. Because of that, I need to go back to my past to see the information you're withholding."_

I stared at him. He stared back at me.

It wasn't a question of hearing him. Our powers were so strong by that point that his thought probably could've continued for another five hours and I still would've been able to catch all of it. It was just that... I was pretty sure that somewhere, in some universe, gods were going into cardiac arrest from having to listen to and process all of the information in that one strain of thought.

_...What the HELL are you talking about?_

"'_Tch. Just forget it. What do we do next?"_

_Close our eyes. And... Just wait, I guess. Maybe we're supposed to fall asleep at the same time?_

"_How is anyone supposed to sleep in this position?"_

_I don't know about you but I'm falling asleep already..._

For some reason, as warmth began to surge between my palm and his neck, I got the feeling that we wouldn't have to sleep at all.

I blinked, opening my eyes as brightness filled my field of vision, casted off from the sunny pale yellow painted walls surrounding us, and the smell of roasted tomatoes and curry filled my nose. Sitting up quickly, Sasuke came into my view. I stared at him, following his line of sight until my eyes locked on a six or seven year old Sasuke stacking blocks in the corner of his bedroom.

"Sasuke!" a voice called.

But the kid was so into his stacking, he barely looked up.

"I need to find a circular one..." He whispered to himself. "Circular makes a castle..."

"You were one of those air-head kind of kids, weren't you?" I asked, getting to my feet.

I turned to him, watching his expression fade to one of the darkest one's I'd ever seen him make as he asked me, without even a slither of expression in his tone:

"Of all the memories you could've picked, why this one?"

"Just wait for it." I replied.

I was actually pretty lucky I could get to the exact part of his memory I was searching for, it could've been our seals touching, or maybe because we'd gotten a lot closer with the whole chakra kneading incident, but I expected us to have to make at least five tries, and instead, we ended up about a good ten minutes before what I was wanted him to see. And with the weird dream world, early was always on time.

"Sasuke-kun!" The voice yelled, pushing the door open.

The young Sasuke got startled and jumped, causing his fingers to lose grip of the circular block he'd found to complete his castle and he dropped it, collapsing the entire thing.

"Oh! I'm sorry." His mother said, leaning down to pat his head. "I didn't mean to make you knock over your blocks."

But Sasuke was already picking his blocks back up and positioning to restack them.

"It's okay."

She watched him, smiling fondly.

"What happened to the black haired little boy I know that used to throw a tantrum anytime someone knocked over his blocks?"

Younger Sasuke smiled up at her widely.

"I'm not a baby anymore, Oka-san. I'm a big boy!"

She laughed, running her hands through his hair.

"Well, then what is my big tough boy doing in his room all alone?" She wanted to know. "I thought you said you were going to go training with Itachi."

Sasuke frowned.

"He told me he was busy." He mumbled, finding his circular block again.

"I'm sure he was just playing with you." She said winking. "Itachi's a bit like your Daddy, you know, it's a bit hard for him to express his feelings."

Sasuke's face lit up.

"You really think so?" He asked.

"Of course. So why don't you put on something presentable and go look for him?"

Sasuke stood up, wearing nothing with a pair of gray shorts with a stain on it, and said:

"This is presentable."

His mother laughed.

"Sasuke-kun." She said, wagging her finger at him playfully. "I thought you said you were a big boy. Want me to have to start dressing you again?"

"No!" He exclaimed gleefully.

She grabbed him around the waist, lifting him up and tickling him.

"You're going to have to go all the way back to being a baby again!" She threatened.

"No, no, no!" He laughed.

"And I'll have to dress you and feed you and change your diapers!"

She plopped him down on the bed where he fell to his knees and extended his arms like he was crying out to the heavens.

"NOOOO!" he shouted, grabbing his neck. "I'M MELTING BACK INTO A BABY!"

He collapsed back into his light blue and white bed sheets, legs kicking up and arms sprawling out like he choked and died of "Mom Germs".

His mother laughed, poking his lifeless form.

"Forget being a ninja." She joked, walking out. "Why don't you just go and sign up to be the village fool already?"

He grinned popping back up and immediately going to find a clean pair of clothes.

"And I thought_ I _was the village fool." I said, giggling.

I glanced at Sasuke who had watched the entire scene stoically but I could feel his inner emotion incredibly strongly. Watching that entire scene... It was just...

"Sorry." I muttered, looking away.

He turned, walking away and following his Mother's path out of the room. I knew by experience that the farther we got away from the center, or young Sasuke, the more the memory sped up, so walking just a few meters through his house and toward the front door, had young Sasuke already finished changing, grabbing his satchel full of ninja tools and running through us and out of the front door.

"Wait, wait! Let me look at you!"

Sasuke sighed exaggeratedly as his mother paused in the front house entrance giving him a once-over. He'd changed his outfit to simple white colored long-sleeved shirt with the Uchiha crest large on his back and gray shorts.

She ruffled his hair.

"I knew you could do it." She approved lovingly. "Only an hour, okay? Then you and Itachi need to come home for dinner."

He nodded and turned, taking a sharp turn toward the right.

"Something's wrong..."

I turned to Sasuke who watched his younger self running away in confusion.

"What?"

He shook his head.

"This isn't how this happens." He explained. "I left but Itachi was already..."

He shook his head, looking down at the ground and I could hear his thoughts loud and clear.

"_Wasn't he already home? But... Wait... How could he already have been home when... Something... Something's not adding up."_

"Hurry up." I said, nudging him. "Your younger self is going to get to the important part now."

We broke into a run, hurrying down his district where Sasuke stopped momentarily to crack jokes with his cousins or wave to his aunts and uncles before he left the district and came to the woods just outside of the village. He took his time looking for him, even stopping a couple times to pet squirrels and playfully scare the living hell out of grazing deer.

_Who would've known the big-bad Sasuke would be friendly to forest animals?_

I knew he heard my thought but he acted as if he didn't. He was still so wrapped up in his own thoughts, to me, it was like he hadn't stopped talking since we left his house.

"_But then, wasn't it dark when I got back home? So, how could so much time have lapsed without me realizing it?"_

He was really going through a mental block. Somehow, he'd completely forgotten doing anything we were watching him do.

"There's no other way around it, Itachi." A voice rang out. "This is what we decided on."

"Four grown men and women get together to decide the fate of more than four hundred people and this is the best they can come up with?" Another voice asked.

With the way Sasuke's head snapped up and his eyes narrowed I could tell it was Itachi. Younger Sasuke reacted too, by standing up straight from where he'd bent to re-tie his sandals, and grinning impishly. He tiptoed over, probably planning to try to scare them based on that kiddie addiction he seemed to have to sneaking up on people.

"_I_ came up with it." The other voice said.

"Well, now it all makes sense." Itachi replied.

The two voices rang out in light laughter momentarily before turning serious again.

"I'm not sure about this, Shisui. I don't think we need to resort to that kind of action yet. Force should only be applied if persuasion fails."

"You were supposed to be the one on the persuasion side, remember?" Shisui pointed out.

Itachi was silent. We edged around a tree, making our way into a small meadow where Shisui sat atop a tree, feet dangling and Itachi leaned against the tree opposite him.

"You're so avoidant, Itachi." Shisui accused. "That's a bad personality trait for a ninja."

"I have no reason to want to stop people in what they do. Whether it's spy on me, document my movements, listen to my conversations... I have nothing to hide. Everyone else in the clan should feel the same way." He replied.

"You only feel like that_ because_ you're avoidant." He said, beginning to laugh. "Any normal person would be offended by such an intrusion of privacy and blatant distrust, and that's why we are where we are."

Shisui sighed.

"Both sides are almost at the point of hatred for each other at this point. I know you. I know you'd rather everyone just drop the weapons and talk it out but... I think it's pass the point of talking right now. You can't talk to someone who doesn't trust you. And you can't trust someone who won't talk to you. That's why I decided on the course of action I did."

Itachi paused, fingering a kunai in his hand.

"No... I understand distrust." He said quietly. "And if your method in controlling Father fails in any way, we'll most likely have to react harshly, won't we?"

Shisui nodded slowly.

"Yeah but perhaps not too harshly... Worse comes to worse, the head of the clan, at least, will have to die to destroy our unity. In that circumstance, we might be able to replace the clan head with someone who is partial to Konoha and wants to avoid a war." Shisui said, then he lowered his head. "You know as well as I do that means killing your father and replacing him with...you."

Then noticing Itachi's facial expression, he offered him a smile.

"But I know how you are, so I won't involve you in that if it gets too far."

Itachi shook his head.

"If you're talking about murdering my family, I'm the only one that has the right to do it."

He flipped his kunai around in his hand.

"And at the end of the day, I_ am_ still a ninja no matter what my ideals are. If it comes to that, I can do it. I won't hesitate to do it. The only person I can't do any harm towards is-" He cut himself off abruptly.

And then, in a simultaneous moment, his Sharingan snapped on and his eyes locked on a solitary six year old boy who, in his shock at what was being said, forgot to keep hiding behind the tree Shisui was sitting on. It was clear younger Sasuke had heard everything they had said, and with the way he was looking at his brother, like he didn't even know who he was anymore... It looked like the world was crashing down around his ears.

He turned around, feet smacking against the dirt as he ran as fast as he could away from them, breathing heavily, pushing leaves and branches out of his face, tripping and falling and rolling in the dirt a couple times.

Itachi and Shisui nodded at each other and with almost no effort involved, they appeared where younger Sasuke was struggling to get away. Shisui dropped behind him, grabbing his arms and stopping him from movement.

Next to me, Sasuke's hands balled into fists as he watched his older brother approach the younger version of himself.

Younger Sasuke writhed against the forest floor. Eyes widening as he watched his dear older brother get closer to him and that whole "big boy" thing flew straight out of the window in seconds as he curled up, tears forming in his eyes as he tried desperately to pull behind Shisui.

"Let me go!" Younger Sasuke cried. "I want Oka-san!"

"Sasuke-" Itachi said to him.

"No! Stay back!" Sasuke whimpered, beginning to shake. "You're... You're scaring me."

His lips began to tremble and then birds became airborne, diving out of the forest as quickly as their wings could carry them as the sound of a young boy's sobs filled the air. Itachi, seemingly startled by his crying, walked toward him quickly.

"Hey, don't cry-"

"Stay away from me!" Sasuke sobbed.

Itachi held his hands up in surrender, still easing toward him at a snail's pace so that it wasn't as noticeable.

"It's just me, Sasuke. You _know _me. I'm your brother."

Sasuke shook his head hard.

"You said you were gonna kill Otou-san!" He shouted.

Itachi faked an expression of complete confusion.

"No, I was speaking metaphorically, Sasuke. Like with shuriken practice." He said to him, widening his eyes in innocence. "Remember when we used to play and we'd call our defeated enemies 'kills'?"

_This guy lies so easily... THAT'S what's really scary._

Sasuke paused in struggling for a second and a bit of understanding spread over his face as he struggled to stop sobbing.

"L-Like a game?" He asked tearfully. "B-But it didn't sound like a-a game..."

"Sasuke, please." He reached his hand out to which Sasuke instinctively shied away from, still unsure.

"Don't jump to conclusions." Itachi said, then he faked a bashful look down at the grass. "...It really hurts me that you'd think I'm capable of something like this so easily."

Younger Sasuke hiccupped, expression turning to slight embarrassment at his older brother's words.

The thoughts in Sasuke's head were swirling around so quickly, most of them filled with rage and cursing, I couldn't catch even one of them.

"I could never do anything to hurt you, Sasuke. I'm your big brother, remember?" Itachi continued reassuring him. "So... Come here..."

He reached his hand out for him, eyes shimmering in the few streams of dimming sunlight that could break through the canopy of leaves.

"Sasuke... Now." He ordered.

Sasuke had been hanging off of every single word he said, so by that point, there was no hesitation left as he leaned forward out of Shisui's grip and into his older brother's arms. Itachi reached up, drying his tears with his sleeve and ruffling his hair.

"You feel better?" He asked him tenderly.

Sasuke nodded slowly, still sniffling slightly.

"I still don't really get it..." He said, lowering his head.

"Don't think about it." Itachi said to him, pulling his chin up. "Just look at me."

As the younger Sasuke lifted his eyes to him, Itachi immediately activated his Sharingan. Sasuke's eyes glazed over momentarily as Itachi lifted his hand and very slowly, reached out and lightly flicked his forehead with the tips of his forefinger and middle finger.

There was a split second of silence, where Sasuke stared at Itachi, head lolling to the side slightly like he was in a trance. But then, all of a sudden, he seemed to catch himself, shaking his head hard and blinking rapidly like there was something in his eyes.

"N-Nii-san!" Young Sasuke gasped, reaching up to grab his wrist.

"Just relax, Sasuke." He said quietly to him.

"I-It hurts! S-Stop!" He exclaimed.

The panic came back into his eyes as younger Sasuke tried to step back and avoid him but Shisui, quick on the uptake, had him tripped and pinned on his back in less than a second. He opened his mouth to scream but Shisui easily slid his hand there, covering Sasuke's mouth. Itachi continued to press his fingers to his forehead, ignoring the persistent tears again streaming down his younger brother's face.

"Shhhh. Just relax, Sasuke. It'll be over in just a second."

Sasuke's thoughts rang out loud in my head as he watched, with one of the most horrified expressions any human being could ever have.

"_What's happening?! Why is he...? W-What's he doing to me?"_

Younger Sasuke's feet kicked up and he struggled, both hands on his brother's wrist, trying to pry him off but he was just...too weak.

"Shhhh." Itachi continued to whisper. "Don't fight it. I'm trying not to hurt you. Please, Sasuke..."

"MMMMFFFAHH!" Sasuke continued to scream, completely ignoring him until he made the mistake of opening his eyes again...

Itachi leaned over him, catching Sasuke's gaze and steadily eyeing him into submission.

Slowly, Sasuke's feet stopped scrapping at the dirt.

"That's right. Just relax..." He told him ruffling his hair softly. "You can trust me..."

His legs trembled momentarily before they finally became completely still and then his arms went weak, slipping from Itachi's wrist where his fingernails had made vibrant red welts along his skin, and hit the grass.

"Everything's fine, Sasuke." Itachi said quietly as Sasuke's eyelids slowly closed and Shisui removed his hand. "...I'm here."

"He's beginning to get resistant to that genjutsu." Shisui pointed out as Itachi pulled Sasuke into his arms. "It's because you're doing it too often. You can't mess up and have another close call with him like this."

Next to me, Sasuke touched his forehead and I could hear his thoughts whirring.

"_Him touching me here. And all those other times... That was always this? He's always been... But why? Why is he doing this? What's the purpose? What's going on?"_

He turned around, shaking his head.

"_I can't watch this anymore."_

I grabbed his shoulder.

"One last thing, Sasuke. Then I promise we can leave. Please, stay." I begged him."

Itachi said nothing as he stood up straight, holding his younger brother in his arms. He lifted a hand, the same one he'd used to flick Sasuke's forehead, and brushed his hair back off his forehead.

"I didn't mean to keep having to do this to him." Itachi said quietly. "Wiping his memory like this."

Shisui shook his head.

"You said yourself that it's necessary. You said that Sasuke can't know about what's happening. Because if he ever found out, he'd be in danger, right?"

Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed as he walked toward them, right up to them, right up to their faces.

"In danger of what?" He asked them, but of course they couldn't see him, either of us.

"You said you wanted to protect him." Shisui reminded him.

Itachi looked down at the unconscious boy in his arms and proceeded to hug him closely. And as their cheeks brushed against each other and he cradled him, he whispered:

"Sasuke... Please forgive me."

It was that moment. That right there, that made me want to show it to Sasuke. I could barely understand anything they were saying about killing his father or their clan or the village or anything but the moment he hugged his little brother like that, hugged him like there was nothing else in the world that mattered. Even if Itachi really was a serial killer bent on mass destruction that had killed every single person he'd ever known and loved, I couldn't help but feel like it was necessary to let that silent man that I'd seen at the inn hurt Sasuke like he did, speak for the times that he held Sasuke lovingly.

Shisui put his hand on Itachi's shoulder, taking a moment to comfort him.

"I always joke with you saying that you're not fit to be a ninja. Because of how much empathy you have and how you hate fighting but..." He shrugged, smiling at the ground. "Everyone's like that deep inside. Maybe if everyone were more like you, the world would be a better place."

Itachi said nothing but he began to walk and Shisui followed. Near the edge of the forest, Itachi set Sasuke down next to a tree right before he regained consciousness and not even realizing anything was strange, younger Sasuke just got up and walked back home. When he got there, Itachi was waiting. Sitting right on the porch steps.

"Nii-san!" He called, running up to him and grinning.

"Hey, Sasuke." He said, giving him an easy smile. "Where were you?"

Then he waited, watching his younger brother closely as his brow furrowed and he looked around. Even though it took a minute for him to respond, he didn't seem to factor in the state of his white shirt, which was so stained with dirt by that point, it could've been naturally brown or the red scratch marks all over Itachi's right arm as he answered.

"Uhm... Oh! Oh yeah, I was looking for you." He said, then he smiled. "Mom said you wanted to practice with me but you just didn't know how to say it."

"Oh did she now?"

"Mhmm."

"Well, let's go remind her that we're old enough to speak for ourselves, now."

Sasuke grinned.

"She tried to dress me earlier, too!" He told him. "We're going to have to give her the 'big boy' talk."

Sasuke prepared to run past him and duck inside but before he could, Itachi reached out and put his hand on his head, gazing into his eyes again. Sasuke stared at him, blinking and then smiling widely.

"What?" He asked.

Itachi stared at him for a moment longer, and then seemingly satisfied, smiled again and said:

"Nothing. I just want you know... I love you, Sasuke."

Sasuke next to me turned around, shaking his head and stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"_Love... What the hell do _you_ know about love? You fucking piece of shit lying bastard... I HATE you..."_

But younger Sasuke reacted in a childish, disbelieving way. I mean, how could he have known that would be the only time he'd ever get to hear his brother say that again?

"Really, Nii-san?! I'm going to have to give YOU the 'big boy' talk, too, now!"

"Seriously?" He asked, getting to his feet and laughing.

But before he followed Sasuke inside he glanced behind him, looking across the path at Shisui who winked at him and then used a teleportation jutsu disappearing into dust in the blink of an eye. Itachi smiled softly again.

"Nii-san!?"

"Coming, Sasuke."

Then the dream shattered, raining down on us like thousands of little diamonds and I walked toward Sasuke, where he was in the empty space, realizing I couldn't leave until I had him with me and grasped his hand. He didn't protest. And then, as quickly as it left, the smell of salty sea water rushed my nose and I felt the sand in my toes and calmness with which the waves flowed. But there was something else. The warmth in my hand. I didn't feel it anymore. I raised my hand from Sasuke's neck and looked at my palm...

_The seal is gone._

My eyes flicked over to Sasuke's neck and rose with shock.

_Even yours is gone, too._

Slowly, Sasuke raised his head. And with the impending sunrise as our only guide to light, I watched the bursts of bright dandelion yellow and dawn blue reflect out of his onyx eyes. My eyes immediately locked on him and his on mine as we both reached out and touched each other's foreheads.

_It moved to our foreheads?_

"_Looks like it..."_

_But what does that mean?_

Sasuke turned his head, gazing out at whooshing waves and beckoned to me.

"_Let's go knead chakra. Far away from the bank so it doesn't hurt anyone."_

He got to his feet, immediately beginning to walk atop the shore and I couldn't help but to follow.

_Why?_

"_So we can fully merge our chakra. Once we do. We should be able to unlock everything this union entitles."_

I smiled at him, interlocking my hands behind my head as our feet began to touch the top of the cool water, walking atop it with ease.

_Why the sudden change?_

"_Because I want the power to be able to completely and utterly destroy someone's life... The same way they did mine."_

_Okay, now, you're just messing with me._

His eyes stayed locked on the horizon in front of us. And because his thoughts weren't conscious, I found myself looking outwards too. To the horizon, where the sky meets the sea. Where the yellowish pink meets the waving blue. And then his thoughts started up again.

"_It's obvious that something else was going on at the time Itachi did what he did. But I don't care about his reasoning. Or anything like that. I'm just... I'm just done playing puppet to someone else's whims. He's going to tell me the truth. Even if I have to die in the process."_

_And you want to bond with me now because...?_

He sighed, opting to speak aloud.

"Isn't it obvious?" He asked.

I stared at him blankly.

"...No?"

"Because with the alternative that Itachi might've been acting on some reason other than just his own prideful whims, then, I can't approach him as I would've done before." He sighed. "I was planning... To approach him as the monster _he_ was. Don't get wrong... He's _still _a monster."

He gritted his teeth.

"_Perhaps even more so than before..."_

"But he's just not the same kind of monster I thought he was. So...the path of an avenger is currently...unnecessary."

I stared at him for a long time.

"You saying that... It feels like the world just turned on its head." I said quietly. "I mean, I'm glad you've 'found yourself' and all but you still didn't really answer me."

He turned and looked at me and we locked eyes.

"You could still go deal with Itachi without being an avenger, Sasuke... And I could still help you without us being all mentally connected or whatever so... So... Why do this?"

He sighed.

"What kind of question is that? It's not like you have anything better to do..."

My mouth dropped open slightly.

"Are you asking me or _forcing_ me?"

"Look, just-" He rolled his eyes. "Weren't you the one that wanted to do this in the first place?!"

"I never said I wanted to become _one_ with you!" I exclaimed, pointing at him. "Especially not since you're acting like a stupid asshole!"

He grabbed his hair.

"Alright, fine! If I want to go see him now, right now, I... I _need _you to be there with me because..."

He sighed, glaring at the water. I expected him to say something like 'because with you, I can get stronger' or 'because if I leave you here and you die, it could kill me' or even something trivial like 'because we've already gone this far, so why not go the rest of the way' but... What he ended up saying was...

"Like you said, I'm someone who lost everything... So trusting people is against my nature but at this point... You... You're like part of me. I can't even wake up in the morning anymore without making sure you're up, too... I can't even...plan my day without including you in it..." He shook his head. "Of course I'd need you to be there with me, because..."

He turned, looking me fully in the eyes.

"Naruto... You're all I have."

A cool breeze blew by whisking around our bare chests and blowing our hair back and the truthfulness in his voice hit me like a bag of bricks. But still, all I could really do was grin and say:

"You're just now realizing that?"

He remained silent but inside, I could hear him thinking a hundred words a second.

"_No. What I'm just now realizing is that... Maybe...Maybe if everyone in the world weren't so different. And there weren't weaklings. And strong ones... Maybe we'd have no choice but to tell each other the damn truth... And maybe... Maybe if everyone helped each other instead of focusing on their own selfish ambitions... The issues we have... The situations we run into... The evil, the death, the pain..."_

I could see the visions in his head as he saw them.

"_I did it to test my vessel..."_

"_You're weak because you're lacking in hatred."_

"_I pretended to be the elder brother you desperately desired..."_

I nodded, understanding his strain of thought.

"But that kind of world... One where there isn't a prodigy and a failure. One where there aren't shadows and bright spots." I smirked. "You'd really suck in that world, seeing as you're a 'strong one' right?"

He scoffed, walking a couple of steps ahead of me.

"I'd gladly in suck in any world where people don't have to end up like..."

He lowered his eyes to the water, looking down at the reflective surface.

"_Like me."_

"It's okay if you hate me... For making you have to watch all of that." I found myself muttering. "I just thought... Maybe Itachi could have actually-"

"Naruto."

Startled, I looked up at him. He had been looking at the sunrise but then he turned, and the bright colors illuminated behind him like some kind of artistic painting as he told me something he'd never said before:

"...Thank You."

So, twice, in less than five seconds, he completely surprised me by his actions. Again, I was completely at odds on how to respond.

"Uh... S-Sure." I stammered. "It's cool..."

He moved his hands, bringing them up into position for gathering chakra.

"Come on. Let's get started."

"Yeah!"

**Karin**

"They've been out there ALL morning."

"Just give it time." The old pervert man said. "It's like feeling out all the specs of a brand-new toy."

_Literally, a toy, too. Since with the way they're bouncing around on that water, it's like they're playing._

I groaned.

"I wish I just decided to stay with Orochimaru after-all."

"Why didn't you?" He asked me. "No one was forcing you to come along."

"Sasuke said he needed me." I paused, realizing what I said and backtracked. "I-I mean... H-He said... It's not like I'm just following him or-"

"I would hope not." He interrupted me. "Because that would be pretty boring."

"WHAT?!" I exclaimed.

He laughed.

"Well, yeah. Females who just hang all over the guy they like are boring." He said. "You wanna know a secret? Men like subtlety."

"Oh great! The damn LECHER is preaching to me?! You don't even know the first thing about a good woman! Past your communal shower prostitutes!"

"Hey!" He yelled, stomping his feet. "Keep talking to me like that and I won't give you the advice I was just planning on giving."

"Who wants advice from someone like _you_?"

"Sheesh." He grumbled, turning away from me. "It's obvious you're an Uzumaki female. Hot-headed, stubborn, and so damn annoying."

I was about to get up and cross over to the water to break up Sasuke and that idiot boy so I could figure out our next move but that caught my attention.

"What do you know about Uzumaki's?" I retorted.

"What I just said. A whole clan of weak and spineless men and loud and stubborn women? No wonder the whole thing collapsed." He muttered. "Every single one of them is just like that woman... Kushina Uzumaki."

My ears perked.

"Kushina?" I repeated. "You know her?"

He glanced down at me.

"Of course. She was the wife of the 4th Hokage of Konoha." Then he gave me a strange look. "How do YOU know her?"

"She was once a part of our nomadic clan." Karin replied. "Before we were attacked, of course. The elders of the clan always used to tell stories about her to scare us from wandering away from the clan. They said, one day, she wandered only about six miles away and no one ever saw her again."

Jiraiya burst into laughter.

"What the hell kind of wives tale is that?" He bellowed. "I bet if Kushina knew they were telling stories like that, she would've come right back! Fit with an entire ghost costume, too!"

_But then... That woman was alive and in Konoha? What the hell is it with that village, anyway? Why is it that it seems like everyone has some kind of connection there?_

After he finished laughing he addressed me seriously.

"Konoha struck a deal with your clan to buy her to be the body host for a demonic spirit, better known as, the Nine Tails Beast."

_That makes sense. We all have naturally strong chakra... And Jinchuriki hosts are best that way._

"People used to buy ninja?" I wanted to know.

"Hell, people _still _buy ninja. It's actually a good market." He replied. "But anyway, she ended up falling in love with my pupil, and the 4th Hokage, Minato Namikaze."

_Your pupil, huh? Yeah, right..._

"And then in one fatal incident, the beast broke out of her and rampaged across the village. In that situation, she and the Hokage both gave their lives to protect the village and the great fox demon was passed down to their only heir. Their son."

My eyes lifted to him.

"There's an Uzumaki boy walking around?" I asked.

_Other than Sasuke... A boy like that might be my dream boy._

He nodded. "I wouldn't mind telling you as long as you swear not to tell anyone else."

"Who would I tell?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

He lifted his finger, pointing toward the ocean and across the waves at the boys. Just then, they punched at each other and a huge wave of chakra burst out, causing a water wave of almost 15 feet to lift up and crash toward to shore.

But none of that caught my interest, my mouth was so far open salt water was flying into it.

"YOU'RE KIDDING ME!" I exclaimed, washing my previous thought so far out of my mind, it might've struck stars.

"Nope." He said, leaning back. "The 'idiot boy' as you like it call him actually just so happens to be royalty."

_I mean, I knew he was a half-breed Uzumaki and that he had some...weird chakra thing going on inside of him but... To actually be that important?!_

"But he's an idiot!" I protested.

Jiraiya laughed.

"Yeah, well... That's what happens when you grow up like he had to."

I turned, looking out onto the water and realizing what he was saying. He and Sasuke clashed again, and the chakra that boomed out caused a wave of almost thirty feet that time. Their fists weren't even touching. It was almost like they were air chakra natures and compressing air-palms.

_I see... Growing up with no parents._

I scoffed.

"Oh, boohoo. _Everybody's_ an orphan." I replied. "It's actually _good_ not to have a family. You're free to do whatever you want that way. He's lucky."

"Is that how you feel?"

I leaned back in the sand.

"I tried to warn my family about the other clan coming to kill us all. I felt it coming days off. And they laughed at me. Said there was no way my sensing abilities could be that strong. And mocked me. Even my own damn mother and father."

I mashed my lips together.

"So, when the attacking clan came... I watched them all burn." I said.

_That'll teach them to distrust me._

Naruto and Sasuke ran at each other again, bouncing off of the surface of the water seemingly effortlessly and gliding into toward each other before pushing their palms out and blasting off of each other. In my eyes, it was like red and blue clashing with purple bursting between them, knocking them both in different directions.

"Clans... Races... Villages... All that stuff is just crap." I said. "It's just false unity. A way for people to feel like the world isn't as big as it is. And it's stupid. Because the people in your clan can hate you while the people outside of your clan can love you."

"That's very perceptive for a thirteen year old girl."

I shrugged.

"Life is stupid." I muttered. "It's nothing but bad choices and regret. Being with Orochimaru... That just saves me from having to make a decision in the first place."

_But... I do have _some_ regrets... Regrets like wishing every night of my life that I had tried harder..._

I had always secretly thought that I should've forced everyone to listen to me despite the fact that as a child I was incredibly soft-spoken and very ill at birth. But when I first arrived with Orochimaru, he discovered the truth that my illness was nothing more than hints to what was probably the strongest sensor the clan had ever had. If they really loved me, he said, they never would've taken me for granted.

I dug my toes into the sand. Glancing up at Jiraiya who's eyes were locked on Naruto and Sasuke, very intently like he was watching some kind of game. I lowered my eyes to the sand, pressing my fingers against the softness, uncovering small seashell pieces here and there, and allowing myself to sink back into my thoughts.

_Still though... I can't help but feel like maybe, the issue really is me. Back then... I was a coward. I always walked with my head down and spoke like I didn't want anyone to hear me anyway. How the hell could I expect people to trust what I had to say if I didn't even look like I trusted myself?_

I pursed my lips again.

_But that's why I'm different now. Because from that point on... From the point I was reborn as one of Orochimaru's children, I never looked back, or down, or anywhere except right into someone else's eyes ever again. And I was never afraid to say anything, no matter how odd, or out of place, or even downright rude ever again. _

Slowly, I lifted my head, raising my eyes to the brightening sun before me.

_In a way, I'm still making up for the one fatal time that I was afraid... And it cost me the lives of everyone I'd ever known. _

"So anyway." I said, sitting up. "It's clear now why you're have a thing for that kid like you do."

I pointed at Naruto just as a staggering wave of chakra whipped past us, almost causing my blood to run cold.

_Damn it, could you guys just tone it down for a second?_

Jiraiya laughed.

"You think it's because he's special? Or because I have a connection to his family?" Then he shook his head. "No. It's nothing like that. It's just this prophecy I have to uphold is all."

I continued staring at Naruto.

"Does that prophecy include lying to him about the ONE thing he deserves a right to know about?"

He sneered at me.

"Seriously? You're actually finding it in that bottomless pit you call a soul to care for the boy?"

I scoffed.

"I'm just saying... You were there when he asked about his heritage and you were silent knowing full well you could basically write a damn biography about the kid."

He grinned.

"Just because I know something, doesn't mean it's my place to tell him." He replied. "That's his battle. His path in life. And I have no doubt that he'll figure everything out on his own. He's not the kind of person that needs to be coddled."

He turned to me fully.

"But speaking of paths in life, before we even got to this topic, I was going to tell you-"

"You mean lecture me?"

He gave me an irritated look.

"Alright! Say it then!" I said, exasperatedly.

"First off, that attitude is not attractive." He grumbled. "I don't know who told women that it's cute to be sarcastic and rude all the damn time. And secondly, put some damn clothes on."

I jerked away from him, struggling to pull the ends down on my shirt, skirt, towel, robe... Oh, whatever it was!

"If he didn't look at you when you were completely naked bathing last night, he's not going to look at you now." He went on. "And thirdly, maybe if you knew how to cook and clean-"

"Are you going to harp all over me or give me advice?!" I exclaimed.

"I was getting there!" He shouted at me.

I frowned, cupping my chin in my hand and resting my elbow on my knee. As I watched, the chakra inside Naruto and Sasuke looked less like its respective colors and more like that deep shade of royal purple. And as I looked further, inside Naruto's belly, there did seem to be a mass of chakra living there. But it, too, was turning purple instead of red.

"Like I said before, men like women who aren't dependant on them."

"How would you know that anyway?" I asked.

He gave me the strongest "are-you-an-idiot?" look I'd ever seen in my life.

"Because I'm a man!" He yelled. "All of the women I've ever been attracted to have led their own lives and never looked to me on what decision they should make next."

"And is that why you're still single?"

"If you weren't a small girl..." He threatened.

"Okay, okay, I get it. So I need to make my own decisions and lead my own life and stop following Sasuke around and blah, blah, blah." I frowned, digging my shoes into the sand. "It's not like he'll remember me if I just walk off, though..."

Jiraiya laughed.

"That's another thing about women. You all assume men have the emotional range of a tea-spoon." He said. "If he was even worth shit in the first place, he'll remember you... And that's the best life lesson anyone could EVER give you."

_Really? So... If I actually think about what I want to do with my life and go do it, that drive alone will attract the guy I like? That's an interesting concept... _

"So, what am I supposed to do on my path anyway?" Karin asked.

He gave me a matter-of-factly.

"Maybe train and get stronger?!" He said. "I don't know what the hell it is with women and thinking they can just live their lives being damsels in distress."

I returned his stare with a pissed off look.

"Maybe it's because men always think it's their place to save women!" I retorted. "That's what's making us weak."

He smirked, shrugging.

"Good response."

I gazed across the waters, watching as the boys approached each other, slowly walking across the white sea foam.

"They're almost finished." I said, watching the pure purple inside of them. "All that's left is..."

Strangely, their foreheads burned brightly with their respective colors. Naruto reached for him and Sasuke, seemingly without a second thought, leaned toward him, allowing him to slide his hand into his hair.

"Their closeness is becoming unnerving." Jiraiya muttered as they pressed their foreheads together.

"They have to do that." I said, adjusting my glasses. "That's the last step to fully merging their chakra."

And as I said that, I saw it, blue mixing into red and becoming completely purple. The chakra that spread out from that point was calm. But a scary calm. Like a timid rage, a well of unspeakable potential. The hairs on my arms stood up. And this weird static went around, like small bits of lighting, making our hair lift off of our shoulders.

"I heard Orochimaru came last night." I spoke up. "All this chakra they're expelling. It's going to attract him again."

"So what?" Jiraiya asked. "It's clear he knows a good deal about what's happening between them. He's probably somewhere close by, watching, using them as another one of his sick experiments. I wouldn't be surprised if your treason was all a part of one of his plans."

"That's not true." I replied. "First off, how would he even have found us?"

"You're a sensor, so that makes you slightly arrogant in terms of searching ability. You think no one else can find anyone except you. Let me tell you, kid, Orochimaru has gone decades finding people with no problem before you turned up on his doorstep." He explained. "If he wanted Sasuke, he would've just taken him right then and there."

"Orochimaru-sama's all about choice." I explained to him. "He doesn't make us do anything we don't want."

Jiraiya snorted.

"Is that why there are chains and locks on the doors?"

"I'm serious." I told him. "He actually wants us to choose him."

"I'm sure that's what he _says_." Jiraiya said, getting to his feet. "But have you ever considered why he only goes after orphaned children?"

He brushed the sand off his pants.

"With spending your days alone and starving as the only other option, there's only one choice a child like that CAN make."

My mind flashed back to what Sasuke had said to me.

"_Has he ever even...given you a hug?"_

I found myself reconsidering everything I'd built up around me to be the truth. But strangely, a smile spread across my face. I removed my glasses, watching my reflection in the shades.

_Maybe I really have been acting stupid..._

"Hey guys!" Naruto said running up the shore. "Something really weird is going on!"

"Something like what?" Jiraiya asked. "That kiss you guys almost had out there?"

Naruto's knees buckled and he hit the sand, pretending to writhe around on the ground and throw-up. Sasuke walked up next to him, completely ignoring him, and addressed Jiraiya.

"Some kind of magnetic force." He said. "I'm not sure how to explain it."

"Well, what can you do?" Jiraiya asked.

"We're not really sure yet." Naruto said. "We're kind of feeling it out. Picking it up as we go along."

Sasuke's eyes locked on mine suddenly. I raised my eyebrows, unsure whether to keep his gaze or look away.

"Uh... Sasuke?" I managed to say.

"Stay still, Karin." He said, raising his arm to me.

I obediently froze, more out of confusion than out of actual obedience, but strangely, as I remained still, I felt weird. I kept Sasuke's gaze and he stared back at me turning his hand over so that his palm was facing upwards. And then, suddenly, a pulse of static seemed to run down from his forehead to his arm.

_Something's really odd here..._

With my sensing, I could see his purple chakra, extending out toward me slowly, and then, like a glove, wrapping around me. And then the static around his arm solidified, turning into something like a glove of electricity rotating around his arm. I started panicking.

"Sasuke... W-What are you doing?"

I backed away, trying to break eye contact with him so that he would stop.

"Just relax." He said, walking toward me.

Naruto and Jiraiya stood back, both wearing clueless expressions and then, momentarily, it was like my ears were ringing.

Slowly, Sasuke raised his hand up, and like I was being called, my feet left the sand.

Excitement exploded onto Naruto's face.

"NO WAY!" He shouted.

Only using two of his fingers at that point, he made me ascend further into the air, until I was a good ten feet off the ground and then smirked at Naruto.

"Catch her." He ordered.

I panicked, a scream catching in my throat as I began to fall but Naruto easily held his hand out. The lightning pulsated around his arm, too, and just as quickly he closed his fingers around air, catching me with nothing but...

_Pure willpower?_ _What the hell kind of power did they harness?_

"The thickening of space and time." Jiraiya remarked. "Is that what you were practicing out there?"

Sasuke shook his head.

"That was more of a repulsion, attraction sort of thing." He replied. "We can implode or bring in anything of around thirty meters to us and explode or push out anything within around fifteen to twenty five meters of us."

"I don't really get all the techy stuff." Naruto said, slowly bringing me down. "But holding Karin like this just gave me an idea. Watch this!"

I sensed the chakra around me condensing and compacting.

"W-W-Wait! S-Stop!"

Naruto cocked his palm back and launched me. Like a canon ball, I soared through the air but while I moved, it was strange. Like every second I was taking flying, moving soaring, wasn't a second, it was five minutes, or even an hour, or a day...

Everything moved slowly. My eyes rose to the birds soaring through the sky over me, and the dazzling sun shinning down, and I turned over slowly, coming to the sand. Down and down but, as my face reached it, coming down onto it, almost to the point that my nose was only a centimeter away from hitting the sand, I froze.

I turned my head. Looking back at Naruto who had both of his hands out pointed at me, seeming to be concentrating hard to keep me where I was.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

_Even he looks impressed._

Sasuke didn't say anything but Naruto turned to him, responding like he asked a question.

"...It's nowhere near as hard as that!" He said. "Here, try me."

Without even waiting a millisecond, Sasuke grabbed Naruto under the arms, pulled him back and threw him out, launching him into the air so that he was soaring on the same path as I was, and with my back in the sand, looking up at him fly, I could see clearly...

_It's almost like they're slowing down time._

And then, he fell, crashing down at full speed but he put a hand out right before he broke his neck on the sand and an enormous amount of chakra pushed out, blasting him back into the air where he continued slowing time to pretend to fly.

"WHOO HOO!" Naruto exclaimed. "Come on Ero-Senin, try it!"

"Stop playing! You're going to make me die of a heart attack!" Jiraiya grumbled.

_This is amazing..._

I heard a couple footsteps sound near me and moved my head right, coming face to face with Sasuke who squatted next to me.

"Are you okay?"

I nodded slowly, taking in his slight head cock and small smile.

"How did it feel to fly?"

_Flying..._

I raised my head, looking up again as Naruto ran toward a rock and front flipped off of it, spinning so that his legs flipped over him and he looked like he almost froze in air.

I sat up, feeling a playfully attentive nature I hadn't felt in years touch me.

"Can I try again?"

He nodded, standing back as I got up and then raised both of his arms which immediately began running with that rotating lightning current.

"Do whatever you want."

I walked toward him, then, and broke into a run, jumping into his hand and pushing up off it. He flipped me up and I extended in a way that was like I was preparing to do a back flip, but as my back arched and I soared backwards, the time lapsed again.

As I moved a centimeter per second, so slowly it looked like I was barely moving at all, Sasuke walked around me, bright hazy sun shimmering off of his black locks as he stood in front of me. He was upside down, from the point of view I was looking at.

He reached out, allowing the back of my head to fall into his hand. I bristled, expecting the lightning going around his arms to hurt me but I didn't feel it at all, it was almost like it compensated for the new matter he was touching and began to circulate around me, too.

"You're light as a feather." He said, gazing down into my eyes.

My red hair whipped across my line of sight, shimmering as it fell below the sea line, and the sparklingly blue waves. And then the pressure folded and exactly like a feather I lowered, sliding into the sand.

"Sasuke!"

I arched my head back, looking through my eyelashes as Sasuke walked over to Naruto and they both ran, doing normal jumps but flipping so far forward it was like the beach had zero gravity. And then I watched them, soaring over me, almost frozen in their respective front-flips and wondered...

_Maybe... There really is more to life than being a ninja._


	5. Chapter 5

**Sasuke**

"_This is the coolest thing that's ever happened!"_

"_This is SO awesome!"_

"_I want to do this FOREVER!"_

Naruto's thoughts were all over the place.

We spent almost a full four hours that day sharpening what Naruto had dubbed our "Zero Gravity" powers.

To me it was clear as day it was just a form of our repulsion and attraction except that we were using it in an inverted and much more graceful way that controlled bodies. That was the sole reason I tried it on Karin in the first place. There wasn't a reason for us to even use our powers if it could still hurt people accidently. The more graceful side that I discovered was the only key I needed.

_We can actually do this._

But it didn't all just come that naturally. After Naruto messed up and gave himself a nose bleed from not repelling properly when he flipped later that night, I decided it was best to hold off on going after Itachi until we discovered the full specs of our abilities.

And it didn't take as long as I thought it would to perfect what we already knew how to do. By the beginning of the second week, a simple flick of the finger could jerk Naruto from where he was standing a full sixty meters across the ocean all the way toward me. There were things like speed and precision that we needed to sharpen but otherwise, practicing was going incredibly smoothly.

"You guys are almost naturals at this." Jiraiya remarked at the end of the first week. "Like it's your inheritance or something..."

"Yeah! We're like...Sons of Gods or something."

"Alright. That wasn't an opportunity for you to go and get arrogant."

"Hmph." I said. "When it comes to arrogance, that's the absolute last thing I'm feeling."

Naruto nodded.

"He's right. It's really, really deep inside but... There's like this calling. It's like it's telling us to make everyone...like _us._"

However, having the precision we did by the middle of the second week... The ability to nose dive off of a hundred foot cliff, coming within one inch of breaking every bone in your body, and saving your life only by using our repulsion powers to repel the ground in such a way that made it look like we were frozen... That should've been enough to make anyone arrogant.

Naruto was the first one who suggested diving off the cliff. And because I knew if he messed up and actually died, I'd probably die, too, or at least hurt really, really bad, I decided to just go along with it.

Since that first time, when we both froze, almost hitting the sharp rock right between our eyes at the same time, Naruto couldn't get enough of it.

"Doesn't that make you tired?" Jiraiya asked Naruto after the thousandth time he'd jumped off.

Naruto and I exchanged glances.

"Nope." He said at the same time I said "Not at all."

While Naruto played around and Jiraiya made the excuse of going fishing, Karin just laid in the sand, watching the sun set. It was the first time since I'd met her that she actually looked complacent. Other than the few times she helped Jiraiya make the closest thing we had to a shelter on that beach, she was fine just lying in that same sandy spot, basking in the sun after we'd thrown her a couple times.

By the end of that week, though, I was certain I'd discovered everything there was about our powers. The only thing really holding me back from going on was...

_I don't know..._

Early that morning, I walked over to Karin, standing over her with my hands in my pockets. She moved her head, eyes slowly coming into contact with mine.

"You ever wonder what life would be like if you weren't a ninja?" She asked me.

"Not until the first day we came here." I responded.

She smiled.

"Do you want to be free?"

I nodded.

"So, what are you waiting for then?" She asked, slowly sitting up. "Go ahead and find the guy you've been looking for... So we can all just..."

_Be free?_

"Today." I said, squatting down next to her. "It'll all be over today. But I still need your help. Itachi's chakra, you've never encountered it before, but can you feel it out?"

She cocked her head, seemingly searching the surrounding areas as she did.

"Yes." She said, nodding. "I can because he's an Uchiha. And since you and he are the last of them, I know that his chakra would be very similar to yours."

I bristled.

_Don't compare me to him..._

She paused, closing her eyes and grabbing a handful of sand, letting it fall between her fingers.

"A man...with a strong, red-orange colored chakra..." She said quietly, then her eyes popped open. "He's actually close by."

She lifted her hand and pointed to the mountains.

"...Around fifty miles that direction."

She adjusted her glasses, seeming to think deeply.

"Actually, I've been sensing this chakra close by us ever since we first decided to go with Jiraiya." She said. "At first glance, I assumed it was Orochimaru. But... It seems like he's been keeping a close distance to you this entire time."

_Probably because of Naruto. So he can try to kidnap him again._

She looked up at me hopefully.

"So...I'm not going to be coming along?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"No. Your work for me is complete." I told her. "You can do whatever you want, now."

She looked down at the sand, playing with it still.

"If after you finally beat Itachi, someone told you that same thing... That you could do whatever you wanted... What would _you _choose to do?"

I looked down at her.

_Why does she want to know that?_

I found I couldn't really answer her. Because Itachi was my lifelong goal. Being an avenger was my lifelong goal. What was I without that?

But as I looked to the waves and the calming sea, an answer slowly became apparent to me.

"Live." I said simply. "Because then, I'd finally have the chance to live for myself."

Her head snapped up to me and oddly, she smiled at me.

"Yeah..."

I watched her pull her red hair back behind her ear, smile popping out at me more than anything else on her face and allowed myself to give her a slight smile back.

_Yeah..._

"_Sasuke, stop flirting with your girlfriend and cliff race me one more time."_

I turned my head, gazing up at Naruto standing on the cliff overtop us and rolled my eyes.

_No one was flirting with anyone._

"_Yeah, right. I heard the WHOLE thing, you liar."_

By that time, we were both good enough at repelling that thrusting both of my hands down and pushing my chakra out bounced me far enough in the air, I was able to become eye-level with him in seconds. I arched into a back-flip, slowing down for emphasis.

"Stop showing off, Sasuke, and come on."

I broke out of it, completing my back flip at a normal speed and came to a rest on the cliff edge.

"Alright, winner is the one closest to the rocks." Naruto said. "Karin, measure us!"

"NO!" She yelled, but strangely she grinned at him afterwards.

He frowned.

"Something weird is going on with that girl recently."

I shrugged.

"Seems like she likes it here."

We walked up to the edge, bare feet just tipping over. From spending literally weeks walking around with no shoes, even sharp jagged rock felt like sand.

"Alright, three...two...one..."

We jumped, spreading our arms out and dropping down toward the reefs coming up to meet our faces faster than lightning. I glanced at Naruto who seemed to be bent on going down as far as he could, even if it meant certain death.

_Naruto, pull back!_

"_I'm gonna win!"_

I pushed my hands forward, repelling about three inches before I hit the ground and Naruto repelled three inches lower than me, tip of his nose just barely touching the end of a reef. Suddenly, blood spurt out, and he grabbed his face, dropping lower to the ground and hitting his knees on the sand.

_Told you._

He rubbed his nose, smearing the red across his face. And I cringed, expecting the pain to come but it didn't, most likely because it all happened so quickly, there was no pain at all.

"_I still won."_

He rolled over, looking up at me and then suddenly, his eyes boggled.

"Sasuke!" He exclaimed. "WHOA! THAT'S SO AWESOME! How are you DOING that?!"

I looked down at him, realizing for the first time that I hadn't slowed myself with the repulsion, I was still moving in regular speeds but... I just wasn't moving. I was floating in place.

Naruto stood up, jumping up and down like a toddler.

"NO FAIR! How come you always figure out the cool stuff first?!"

I realized that the lightning rotating around my arms, which usually dispelled once I stopped using it, was stationary. And I wasn't even consciously using it.

I leaned forward, moving through the air in any direction I wanted to.

I looked up to see Jiraiya and Karin darting across the grass, coming over to us. Jiraiya crossed his arms and grinned up at me.

"That's a fancy new trick."

Karin cocked her head.

"I guess anything is possible."

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted. "Teach me! Come on!"

I sighed, lowering myself down over to him.

"Just keep your hands constantly repelling." I said.

He frowned.

"Easier said than done." He muttered.

But he jumped into the air, putting his hands beneath him and began to move in slow-time.

"No, don't just push it once, like with zero gravity. Keep pushing it. I said _constant_."

"Wait... I think I can..."

He stopped repelling altogether, dropping him a full three feet, but then he caught himself and tried to keep it stable.

"Whoa... I think I'm doing it."

I moved over to him.

"Keep it on."

"Yeah, I'm... I'm really doing it!"

He looked down at his hands.

"I think it's going to stay on now." He said.

And then, like a millisecond after he said that, he dropped again, almost smacking his face right into the reefs.

Jiraiya began chuckling.

"Yeah, good luck with teaching him that. It's gonna take another week."

"I vote a month." Karin replied.

Naruto grimaced, but he didn't give up of course. Instead, he continued working, only pausing to look up at me where I floated effortlessly right above him and whine and complain that I never have to practice. That I just get lucky.

_You're just mad because things come easy to me._

"_I think you cheated."_

_It's simple. You just keep it on. Once you repel as hard as you can, and keep it up at that pressure, it'll move past a certain breaking point. And you won't even feel yourself doing it anymore._

"Breaking point?" He questioned aloud.

His lightning came back on. And from the way Karin popped up into a sitting position from where she had laid down and the way my forehead burned, I could tell he was gathering a lot of chakra. The waves crashed into the shore and even for a moment, some of the clouds seemed to lower and then. He pushed his hands down, blowing himself up around 200 feet above ground level.

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa!"_

_You idiot! You're going to kill us!_

But he didn't come crashing down. After all the sand he'd pushed up cleared, I looked up to see him floating there, keeping his hands pointed down and then, after a second, he lifted his arms up, looking at them all over and he flashed me a wide grin and a thumbs up.

"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" He hollered.

I smirked.

_That's what I'm talking about._

"_You ready to fly for real?"_

_I've been ready._

He outstretched his arms and burst outward, flying toward the sea and I zoomed after him, pushing with ease through the wind, feeling it whip my hair back.

"WHOOO!" Naruto shouted, going completely vertical toward the sky.

_You realize we can't breathe at certain elevations right._

"_Ele-what?"_

_Why the hell am I connected to a stupid person?_

But I followed him, blasting through the clouds and the longer we went for, the faster we got, like we were finally getting the speed and precision in manipulating our attraction, repulsion powers, that we needed.

_I think this is it, Naruto._

He glanced at me and then stopped himself, pausing right after we flew up through our third cloud.

"What are you talking about?" He asked, crossing his legs as he floated.

I levitated next to him.

"I mean, I think it's time to get this over with."

"And see Itachi?"

I nodded.

He reached his fist out, grinning at me.

"I was waiting for you to say that." He said, as I fist bumped him.

He covered his bare chest with his hands, rubbing his skin for warmth.

"_It's kinda cold up here..."_

_Obviously, we're more than 6,000 feet off the ground._

His eyes widened as he looked down.

"Really?! That high?" He asked.

Below us, the beach was as big as our fists, and Jiraiya and Karin were like ants, maybe even smaller.

"What took you so long to want to leave anyway?"

"We needed to practice." I replied, turning my eyes to the gigantic sun beaming at us.

He pretended to yawn.

"Okay, we'll just be here all day until you decide to tell me the truth." He replied. "I'm in your head, remember?"

"'Tch." I muttered. "Aren't you glad? Glad that we got some peace?"

"I know you didn't do this for me."

"Well, why not?"

He rolled onto his back, looking up at the sky.

"Because you're Sasuke." He said easily.

"And that makes me a selfish asshole?"

He grinned. I didn't even need to hear his response and he knew he didn't need to give one.

"There's still a good chance if we walk in there unarmed, Itachi's going to kill us." I mumbled. "I thought that with the percentage of our defeat being around 85% still, you'd want to have as much fun as you possibly can first. So, contrary to popular belief, I'm not that bad of a person."

He rolled over onto his stomach.

"You mean you don't trust our powers?"

"You're forgetting Itachi's a genjutsu master." I said. "Had I prepared by training with Orochimaru, my first course of action was to strengthen my eyes so that I wouldn't be trapped in one. But we still haven't solved for that. And..."

I trailed off. A flock of birds flew up next to us, and startled by us, cawed and flew off in the opposite direction.

"...I most likely won't ever be able to."

"So... You noticed it too?"

"Of course I did."

We both looked down at our arms, still jolting with rotating electric currents and periodically a spark here or there would reach out and connect to each other.

"We...can't do Ninjutsu anymore." Naruto whispered. "But does that include your Sharingan?"

"Once I stopped trying to block your thoughts from mine and we merged fully, it's gotten weaker." I told him. "I can't even...turn it on anymore."

We floated in silence. Naruto played with his fingers.

"I think there's a good chance, Itachi's not the person you think he is, Sasuke." Naruto said. "I think it's good enough to put all our bets on. I mean... When he hugged you like that in the dream, who did he have to impress? Since Shisui was planning with him..."

_Shisui... I'd always thought my brother killed him to get his Mangekeyo but it seems like that might not have been the case. What the hell was going on?_

"We're going there to figure out what's going on." He said. "And even if we didn't have these powers or any powers at all, we'd still need to go... Because... We need to set you free, Sasuke."

I shook my head.

_Set me free? From what, life? We'll both die if this screws up._

Naruto smiled.

"Yeah..." He said, then he giggled. "We're going die, aren't we?"

And then his giggles turned to laughter and I looked at him like he was crazy.

"What the hell is there to laugh about now?"

"I don't know... I guess... I never really thought it was going to end like this." He said, between bursts of laughter. "But it's not really surprising to me at the same time... Strangely, I've always felt like it would probably happen like this even though I couldn't put it into words..."

"Felt like it'd happen like _what_?" I asked.

He smiled softly and then reached into his pocket, pulling two navy blue objects out. I watched our faces shine back at us in the silver metal with the clean leaf symbol etched in the center. Not so much as a scratch on either of them.

"If you die, I die, Sasuke." He said, bright blue eyes reflecting the vibrant sky.

I slowly reached out, grabbing my leaf headband and nodded.

_...I guess that's right. And it's really stupid but...what better way to go out than with your best friend standing right by your side?_

We both looked up at each other, tying our bands around our heads, covering the symbols cursed into the skin on our foreheads.

Naruto straightened his body out into a standing position, looking toward the sun and I remained levitating in my crouching position, lowering my eyes to the ground thousands of feet below us.

"_...Sasuke?"_

And finally, I stood.

_I'm ready._

**Itachi**

"You seem rather edgy lately."

My eyes layered over the forest, surveying the sky. The way the clouds were forming out of nowhere, it was as if they were bringing an excessive amount of pressure.

"Don't tell me. You're afraid of the rain?"

And the pressure was disturbing the birds, a few of which, namely crows, came to the ridge I stood on and dropped onto my outstretched finger. Just by flutter of the animal's wings and the persistence of the heart beat, I could tell how far off the intrusion was.

"Kisame." I finally said. "I was under the impression you were going to report our progress to the rest."

"I am, I am." He replied, picking his sword up and swinging it over his shoulder. "But for some reason, I just feel like you're trying to get rid of me."

He grinned.

"And I really don't like it when people do that."

I extended my arm again, prompting the crow to fly off.

"Rest assured. I have nothing to hide." I told him.

He sighed.

"It's not like we have anything to report." He replied. "That Nine Tails Kid is under better protection than any of them. But alright, alright. I'll go."

He walked up to me, leaning to jump off the cliff.

"Don't have fun without me."

"I don't plan to." I replied.

I watched as he plunged off the cliff and made his way down the terrain.

_Kisame is a lax kind of person, meaning he won't be back for many hours._

Normally, the sole purpose I allowed Kisame to do things was because I needed time to act alone unsuspected. And because it was suspicious to be alone too often, it was rare I ever allowed Kisame to do things alone. Strangely, he always seemed curious about me no matter how little I was by myself.

I jumped, easily connecting my feet to the mountain side and began to walk up the side of it. On the top of the mountain, there was a firm, square shaped plateau, perfect for whatever meeting was to come.

My eyes scanned the sky and even though I couldn't physically see what I was coming, I was fully aware of who it was, thanks to the crows I had tracking his whereabouts. I wasn't necessarily surprised of his direction toward me. But I was disappointed.

_Sasuke... Why have you decided to come face me so quickly?_

And with the building pressure, the clouds seemed to lower.

_Didn't you realize only a short while ago how much harder you have to work to stand before me?_

Even though I hadn't necessarily gotten the chance to see my younger brother grow into pubescence, I never thought he'd grow to be capricious person. In fact, as a child, his caution and attentiveness were two things that made him a very promising ninja.

_So, then... He must have a specific reason for coming now._

And there were only two reasons I could think of that my brother would seek me out prematurely.

_Either he's killed the one closest to him and acquired the Mangekeyo or somehow he's discovered the truth about the Clan Massacre. _

Unfortunately, both situations were far to my distaste. So, as I subconsciously hoped against them both, I was surprised, as the clouds parted and my eyes locked on what was coming, to discover that I may have gotten my wish.

_How interesting. It seems, for the first time in a long time, I am incorrect._

Two pairs of feet dropped from the sky and landed on the mossy, smooth rock I was standing on. With them, they brought an exceptionally chilly wind. But not an ordinary wind, a wind filled with immense foreshadowing.

However, the two boys I gazed at didn't look like they deserved that precaution at all. If I was a comedian, I may have immediately spoken up about the fact that both of them seemed so hurried in their mission to track me down, neither bothered to find a shirt or shoes. Meanwhile, the clothes they did have on, a tattered pair of orange pants and a pair of white shorts with no less than a hundred dirt and blood stains on them each, coupled with their sweaty, unkempt hair and deeply tanned skin, gave me the impression they'd spent the last few months living in the wilderness. But I wasn't a comical kind of person, so I didn't think to say that.

Instead, I focused on the flamboyant way in which they arrived.

_I wasn't aware there was a jutsu for flying. _

My eyes locked on theirs, glaring, and their hands, balled into fists, and their expressions, both of them silently scowling at me.

_It seems they've both lost that childishness of when I last saw them, also._

"Itachi." Sasuke said. "I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to answer them."

_Or perhaps I spoke too soon._

"Why should I do that?" I asked him.

"Isn't it obvious?" Naruto spoke up. "It's because you're his brother, you dumbass."

My eyes flicked over to him, surveying him.

"Sasuke. I didn't think you were one to involve someone else in your personal affairs." I said.

But he completely ignored my comment, instead, he walked up to me, eyes narrowing and asked:

"Who was Shisui Uchiha to you?" He asked. "A friend or an enemy? And did he help you plan the clan massacre?"

_He was my best friend. The closest thing to a brother I had, other than you. And though he didn't actually assist me in planning the massacre directly, he did pass me the torch to begin the planning myself._

"He was nothing to me." I replied. "Just an old comrade. And I orchestrated the massacre alone."

"Then what kind of person was he? What did he stand for?"

I paused.

_The safety of all peoples, regardless of ideology or heritage... However, answering this truthfully may be an issue. But telling a blatant lie will be too easy to catch. It seems this may truly be an issue... What to do..._

"Don't lie to me." Sasuke prompted.

"What reason do I have to lie?" I asked him, finally deciding on a half-truth. "He was a regular leaf ninja. As for what he stood for, I imagine it was what all ninja in Konoha stand for, the well-being of Konoha."

With my Sharingan on, I could see slight movements in people. And the ones displaying itself in front of me were odd, such as Naruto giving Sasuke a meaningful gaze to which he responded by shaking his head.

"...I know that." Sasuke muttered under his breath.

He raised his head and they both gave me another dead-lock glare.

"Are you telling the truth when you say _everyone_ in the village was for the well-being of Konoha?" He asked.

_Hm... This really is going to be troublesome. It seems Sasuke has some understanding of the clan's faultiness. But how much so is disputable. I may still be able to turn him back around._

"Respond now." He ordered. "Are you telling the truth?"

_No._

"Yes. As far as I know." I replied.

Sasuke shook his head, almost as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. His head ducked, and his eyes fell to the floor.

"...You're lying to me."

"If there were traitors among the village other than myself, that wasn't my concern. I never collaborated with any of them and they never contacted me. I did what I wanted, which was exterminate the people of Konoha-"

"Then why didn't you kill anyone who wasn't an Uchiha?" Naruto spoke up.

_That wasn't my mission._

"I wanted to pair up against people with a strong ocular jutsu such as mine." I responded easily.

What surprised me was that it was actually a good point for a kid with low intellectual capabilities.

"Then wouldn't the Hyuga clan have fallen into that?" Naruto asked.

_Yes._

"No, because I was only interested in ocular jutsu that mimicked my own." I decided.

And that was another good point, given the child was rather dull. I actually had to think critically to respond to that one.

"And that included children?" He asked. "Children who didn't even have eye powers yet?"

_...I never expected to be in a situation where I was questioned by children. But how is he thinking to ask such intelligently blockading questions? I would expect that from Sasuke but..._

As I looked between them, noticing their slight movements toward each other again, I saw it, something strange on their foreheads, behind the Leaf headbands they wore.

_What is that? It looks like some kind of...chakra fuser. Is it...connecting their thoughts somehow?_

"You're running out of time, Itachi." Naruto said. "I asked you a question. If you don't answer, we'll be forced to bash your head into a wall."

I stared at him.

_And even though neither of them have a kunai knife or shuriken to share between the both of them, they're confident. As if there's something else I'm not accounting for. Something I don't know. ...What is it?_

"I killed the children because they were in the way. Not because they were a challenge." I responded.

"And I wasn't in the way?" Sasuke asked quietly.

_Of course not._

"Of course you were." I replied.

"So why didn't you get rid of me?"

_Because I love you._

"Because you were just that worthless to me."

"I'm even more worthless now." Sasuke said, raising his head and extending his arms. "I have nothing. No Sharingan. No weapons. Nothing."

_...No Sharingan? How could that have happened?_

"So if I was supposed to die and if you wanted to kill me, then why can't you kill me now?"

_Because you're everything to me._

"Because that's even more of a reason to let you suffer with your pitiful life in which you'll forever be the weak heir who never restored what was taken from him."

Sasuke lowered his head again and closed his eyes, without missing a beat, Naruto spoke up.

"So you're serious?" He asked. "You never cared about anyone ever?"

_I did._

"No." I replied.

"And you're just going to live the rest of your life answering to the Akatsuki and following their orders? Alone? With no friends or family or anyone that you actually love?" He asked. "And...you're fine with that?"

_Not at all._

"Exactly."

"How can you be?" He asked, walking toward me. "...How? Your... Your Mom and Dad... They loved you so much. How could you not have seen that?"

Staring into his blue eyes, I couldn't help but sense the tenderness there, as if he'd seen their love with his own two eyes.

"You were so lucky..." Naruto said quietly.

_I was._

"...I never even had one person love me like that." He said. "And... And you can just throw it all away? Just like that?"

His eyes began to water.

"You honestly didn't care about any of them at all?"

_...I cared so much._

"No." I responded. "They extended their usefulness."

His tears spilled over, inching down his face. I felt a strange urge to look away from him. But I couldn't, because in doing so, it would've given away my falsehood.

_The kind of people Sasuke chooses as friends are interesting. I never thought he'd grow up to like over-emotional people._

"That's...just too cruel." He said to me. "What kind of sick, twisted freak are you!?"

"Naruto, enough." Sasuke said.

Naruto stopped talking, bowing his head and wiping his tears.

"...Can't you see...?" Sasuke asked him. "He's lying."

My eyes flicked over to Sasuke again, swiftly. A smile was plastered over his face and he looked at me, head cocked upwards, with that smile. But it was broken, almost. Dazed looking. He parted his lips and a small laugh could be heard.

_Is he so desperate for love at this point, that he's willing to look past my crimes? What's happened to him? I'm going to even him out again. Even though I'd rather not hurt him..._

"Perhaps, you've forgotten what I did and allowed yourself to become weak and mindless..." I said, extending my hand from my jacket. "Why don't I replenish your memory of what I did to your clan-"

"STOP IT!" Sasuke shouted.

All the smiles and laughter were gone. He looked up at me, glaring fiercely with teeth gritted against each other.

"STOP TELLING ME ALL THESE DAMN LIES!" He yelled. "YOU'RE A LIAR! ALL YOU DO IS LIE! THAT'S ALL YOU KNOW HOW TO DO! I HATE YOU!"

He walked toward me as he continued shouting and I noticed something. That same pressure I'd felt far off coming back. Simultaneously, like static was filling the area, their hair began to lift off of their foreheads, the clouds darkened, Sasuke continued shouting at me, Naruto continued wiping his face, and suddenly, a bolt of purplish white electricity pulsated from their head and wrapped around their arms.

Sasuke lifted his arm, pointing it at me.

"I remember everything, you bastard."

I raised my eyebrows, truly surprised.

_There's no way he could've broken those memory erasing genjutsus. They were far too powerful._

"And I don't care." He growled. "I don't give a damn about what you did and who you did it for and why you wanted to kill our father. I don't care what your reason was, even if it WAS good!"

The lightning on Sasuke's arm sparked powerfully momentarily connecting to Naruto's as he raised his arm as well, directing it at me.

_No... He really remembers. Does it have something to do with this connection they have? This power they've harnessed._

"Because you're a filthy rotten piece of shit liar and unless you start telling the damn truth right now, you asshole, I'll just have to settle for breaking you the fuck in half and taking a shit on your worthless face."

They both in unison turned their hands over to their palms and lifted their hands, just like that, my body began to respond, I lifted, feet leaving the floor.

"If anyone deserves to live on in their own worthless misery, it's you..." He said, fingers curling. "And turning you into an invalid is just the beginning of the hell I'm going to unleash on your weak, pitiful ass."

I had actually allowed him to catch me in his attack because I was curious in seeing what kind of powers they had. But once they caught me I discovered a serious complication.

_Because of this power, the genjutsu I casted on them the moment they stepped into my plane is warping, turning to reality of its own will. Unless I unleash my most powerful moves on them, at this rate, they may actually be able to damage me. _

Their hands began to crush to fists.

_But I don't want to kill him... He's...Sasuke. I... I can't kill him._

I raised my head, eyes locking solidly on Sasuke and for the first time since that fateful night, I rested my Sharingan, returning to my original onyx eye color.

"I'll comply." I promised.

**Naruto**

I honestly didn't know how deep Sasuke's hatred for Itachi ran until that moment. When Itachi explained that he didn't care about his parents or anyone and just used them and didn't mind being alone forever. It hurt me, because it was the exact opposite of me. A type of reasoning I could never understand. But I didn't cry for myself...

_Sasuke..._

Because we were so closely connected, I could feel him so heavily there. And even though we didn't like to admit it, it was like we were becoming one person. I wanted to rage at Itachi, yell at him, curse at him, stomp his face into the ground because I'd visited those locked memories even more than Sasuke had. And I knew for a fact he was lying when he said what he did...

But instead of raging, I found myself crying. Because Sasuke... Inside, all he really felt, what he really, really felt was just...

_Really immense sorrow._

The kind that has you falling to your knees. It was so heavy. I couldn't do anything but turn on the water works. And Sasuke, really oddly, started doing what I wanted to do. I'd never seen him say so many words in one sitting in my life, let alone cursing like I did. He sounded almost exactly like me. And that rage, that deep seated rage was so powerful, and our emotions combined. If we'd attacked Itachi then, even though he was threatening to just break his bones, we would've vaporized him. There wouldn't have been anything left...

_But it's almost over now._

We stopped because Itachi said he would tell the truth. I honestly think Sasuke didn't believe it. His mind was completely blank as we both lowered our hands, letting him land on his feet. And Itachi turned his Sharingan off. So, there was no way he could hurt us, but we were cautious anyway. Sasuke walked up to him slowly, until he was right in front of him and then he just said...

"I'll start from the beginning."

I stayed where I was because, even though no one said anything, I felt like they needed their moment. Even though, from where I floated up in the sky over them, it didn't look like they were getting touchy-feely or anything. Sasuke kept his distance, arms crossed as he listened, and Itachi sat on the mountain edge, one leg dangling over the side, like how Sasuke normally sat.

_You guys are actually pretty similar._

"_I'll kill you."_

_Okay, okay!_

But floating up there had it's advantages, like seeing something strange weaving through the forest from far out.

_Uh, Sasuke? I think you should wrap it up._

"_Why?"_

_Someone's coming._

"_Who?"_

_No idea. _

I dropped down to the mountain, running across the smooth rock over to the side where I last saw the moving thing, and a yell caught in my throat as I came face to face with what was climbing up the side.

"It's Orochi-"

But he opened his mouth, snakes expelling from deep within him to wrap around my head. I jumped, becoming airborne as I struggled in mid-air, trying to pull them off me.

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked.

Orochimaru chuckled as he and Kabuto eased onto the ridge with him.

"Greetings, Sasuke." He seethed. "I see you've found your dear brother."

"Orochimaru." Itachi stated. "How surprising to find you here."

"I should say the same to you, Itachi." He replied.

I jerked, finally succeeding in pulling the last snake off before it wrapped around my neck and suffocated me.

"You asshole!" I shouted.

I flew over to Sasuke and Itachi and dropped to the ground next to them. In unison, we all tensed, readily for battle.

"Relax." Orochimaru said. "Contrary to what you're thinking, I'm not here for battle."

"Yeah, right!" I said. "You just want to kidnap Sasuke again! I've worked way too hard for you to just mess it all up now!"

"Trust me, Naruto." He said. "I'll take Sasuke when I want him."

I felt a burst of strength near me and registered it as something Itachi was doing. Sasuke was looking up at him too.

"_Mangekeyo..."_

_What is that?_

"_The eye that you have to kill your best friend to get."_

_Wait... THAT'S why you tried to kill me?!_

"_Didn't I explain that?" _

_No!_

"_Whatever."_

"And besides, I know full and well neither I nor Kabuto are a match for Itachi." He said.

Kabuto shrugged.

"Who knows, I could be quite soon, though."

_In his dreams._

"It's the power you've unlocked that I'm interested in. Not to take but simply to study. Because I know now that my prior assertion of what was happening to you was incorrect." Orochimaru revealed. "I assumed that the seal on Sasuke was the same curse mark I had implanted, just sealed with a different will. But..."

His face broke out into pure scientific excitement.

"I never imagined that it could've been a brand-new seal entirely! Naruto used this new, high-level seal to rewrite the curse mark completely. From the moment I set eyes on it, it had never been mine."

_I bet he feels like a dumbass._

Sasuke smirked.

"What's it to you anyway?" I asked.

"Actually, it's important to every ninja on the face of the planet. Because that jutsu you have was originally designed to connect all ninja in heart and mind, by the Sage of the Six Paths himself."

"I knew it!" A voice shouted.

I turned to the left, watching as a frog everyone had been ignoring since we'd gotten there, enlarged and spat out two people.

"Ero-Senin?!" I exclaimed the same time Sasuke said "Karin?"

Karin looked like there was no other place she'd rather NOT be as Ero-Senin gave us his old smile as he landed in front of us.

"It's Ninshu." Ero-Senin spoke up. "The preaching's in the Sage's old scroll."

"You mean Ninjutsu?" I asked.

"No, Ninshu." Itachi replied.

_Even he knows about it?_

"_Seems like it."_

"I've been watching you." Orochimaru went on. "And your powers consist of increased empathy for one another, even to the point of a pain connection and a thought connection."

"_Don't forget about the prying into people's memories."_

_You should actually thank me for that, Mr. Brother Issues._

"But based on the logic of this way of life, connecting with people spiritually and mentally, it comes at an awful price, doesn't it?" He grinned. "That of losing all your Ninjutsu capabilities and being reduced to a commoner, since, of course, to perform all of the passive techniques you're doing, you need to extend your chakra and connect it to each other, instead of folding it within yourself as power, which is the principal foundation of Ninjutsu."

Everyone's eyes turned to us. I almost felt like I was naked.

_Crap... Now everyone knows._

"_It's not like I just didn't say it aloud to Itachi."_

_Yeah... And what if he really was a psychopath? That would've killed us._

"_Whatever."_

"In any case, it stumped me for a long time how Naruto could've recreated a seal that was originally created by a legendary figure in legend only, and then I realized." His grin faded. "You must be much more important than I assumed. And not just you, Sasuke as well, since he received the seal so easily it was as though it belonged there."

Ero-Senin grinned.

"I was thinking the same thing. Meaning... They must actually have some kind of connection to that legendary figure."

"Exactly." Orochimaru agreed.

_Connection? Like... We're sages?!_

"_No, usuratonkachi. More like...within his bloodline."_

"That's easy to assume. Seeing as though the Uchiha clan and in extension the Uzumaki clan are both heirs to the Sage's sons." Itachi replied.

_Does your brother know everything?_

"_Yes. And he's just too much of a jackass to tell anyone."_

"Once this jutsu is sharpened, Naruto will most likely recall how to perform the seal. And when that happens, it'll be taken to its greatest level with the ability to be shared simply by touch with whomever you meet." Orochimaru explained. "This world... Is on the brink of becoming one where there are no ninja anymore if this continues."

The way he said it was threatening, and so everyone eased back into their attack positions. Even Ero-Senin and Karin.

_Heh. We have a pretty happy family right now._

"_You call this dysfunction a family?"_

_You know, if what he's saying is right, our family's only going to get bigger._

"_I'm not interested in being mind-glued to anyone else."_

"Of course, it'll be at a lower aptitude than between the both of you." Orochimaru said. "And it will most likely only involve empathetic feelings and not all of the extra pain connection and mind-reading."

"_I might be lucky after-all."_

Orochimaru gazed at us.

"I told you to relax. I'm not your enemy." He said. "I only came to give you that message. It's up to you what you do with...the power to end all wars."

_End all wars?_

"Come, Kabuto."

They backed away, snapping their fingers and bursting into shimmering flames which they used to fade away.

_That jutsu's bad-ass._

"_I could've learned it if you didn't put this 'end all wars' seal on my forehead."_

_You know you're grateful._

We heard pairing footsteps behind us and turned to see Itachi walking away.

"Wait!" Sasuke called out. "You didn't finish yet!"

"My partner should be returning soon. If you don't want your friend to be taken by the Aktasuki, you had better leave."

Sasuke extended his hand, using the attraction power to pull Itachi near him, but Itachi just burst into crows with a new him standing in another place.

"What's more important to you, huh!?" Sasuke asked, continuing to try to attract him which only created more crows. "Me or this stupid worthless life you're living?!"

He tried to attract Itachi again and this time, he didn't burst into crows. He allowed himself to be pulled closer.

"My current mission is one of exile." Itachi said simply.

"I already told you, I don't care." Sasuke said. "You're going to explain this to me. Even if I have to follow you to the depths of hell or wherever you're going, I'll keep going until you talk to me."

I interlocked my hands behind my head.

"And I'll have to go, too. Since... You know..." I said. "Connected and all."

Itachi stared at us. And for an odd second, it was like I knew what he was going to say before he said it. Like I could feel it.

"Fine." He said. "I'll take you with me and explain everything to you in detail. The way I most likely should've done when you were young."

He turned his head.

"Perhaps if I had done that then, you wouldn't be in the pain you're in currently..."

_He's just now realizing that?_

Sasuke stared at him for a long time.

"_Take me with him? Should I trust him? How do I know it's not a trap? This could be dangerous... What if..."_

A million thoughts were going through his head at once but, based on his heart, and the longing for an answer, I could feel something there. A fullness, a path to a whole... So, I made his decision for him and placed my hand on his shoulder, pushing him toward his brother.

_What the heck are you waiting for? _

He raised his eyebrows turning back to look at me.

_Just go, already. _

"_Are you sure?"_

_This is what you always wanted, Sasuke. You've always just wanted someone to fill that hole for you. I've tried but... I think understanding your life, and who you are can help fill it better._

"_Since when did you become the intelligent type?"_

_I don't know, actually. I think your brain cells are mixing in with mine._

He smirked. I grinned. Then I looked up at Itachi.

"You won't be taking him to Camp Jinchuriki Hunter, will you?"

He shook his head.

"If I bring Sasuke with me, I'll be permanently succeeding from their union in order to protect him from their influence."

Sasuke turned to him.

"First off, I don't need protection. So don't talk to me like I'm a child. And secondly, I hate you." He said to him, face as emotionless as ever. "I'm coming with you for the answers. That's it."

"That's understandable."

Sasuke turned to Ero-Senin, who immediately waved his hands at him.

"I'll have to tell Tsunade the truth about your whereabouts, if she asks me." He winked. "But that's only if she asks me."

Karin stepped up past Ero-Senin and over to Sasuke. Everyone stared at them for a moment and then, like sense dawned on us, we all started awkwardly walking away.

"So, Ero-Senin, we're getting ramen on the way back, right?" I asked him.

"Ohhh yeah! Lots and lots. You still have that frog with the money in it, right?"

"Ero-Senin!" I exclaimed.

But even though I was making my distance from them, I could still understand them through Sasuke's thoughts.

"So you're really going to just go, then?" She asked him.

"I have something I must do."

"That's your favorite sentence, isn't it?" She said, then she shrugged and smiled. "Orochimaru-sama didn't even approach me. So..."

"Then, it's time for you to be free." Sasuke told her. "Go find some people who truly care about you."

He glanced back at Itachi, clearly keeping track of his movements to make sure he didn't get too far away.

"I'm sure Konoha would love to exploit you."

She shook her head.

"The village life isn't really my scene." She told him, beginning to turn around. "I think I'll just... Find some nice people who live by the sea."

Sasuke nodded, looking after her as she walked away and then suddenly, spoke up.

"...Karin?"

She stopped, turning back to him.

"Yeah?"

"If it turns out to be difficult, finding some people... I'll come for you."

"Ohhh wow." I whispered.

"What?" Ero-senin asked me.

"Sasuke just basically proposed to her." I told him.

She flashed him one of the most honest smiles I'd ever seen a hateful, distrustful girl like her ever wear.

"Y-Yeah, sure." She said to him, then, incredibly spontaneously, she leaned over kissing him on the cheek. "I'll be waiting."

"OOOOOHHHHH!" I exclaimed at the same time Ero-Senin was like "I HEAR WEDDING BELLS!"

Karin frowned deeply at us at the same time Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned around. I ran over to him, jumping up onto his back and freeze frame flipping over him.

"Don't forget about my goodbye!" I said, as my feet touched the ground.

He tugged his ear.

"Who could forget? You're so loud..." He grumbled. "Not to mention the fact that our connection has almost no range. You'll be with me no matter where I go."

"Stop acting like you aren't grateful to have me around, bakasuke."

"I'm actually not, dobe."

We stared at each other, with his usual annoyed expression and my peeved one... But then as quickly as they came, mine eased into a grin as his eased into a complacent smile.

"What's your plan, anyway?" He asked.

"I gotta figure out this sealing thing." I told him, pointing to my forehead. "Maybe by the time I see you again, we really _will_ be able to spread this Ninshu thing to everyone."

"You're seriously going to take that advice?" Sasuke asked me.

"It's my inheritance, you know." I replied, shrugging. "And I've always wanted to go training with Ero-Senin."

I glanced back at the old, white haired man, with his telescope out looking down at a natural hotsprings about five miles away.

"Even though he's a pervert, he's all I really have." I said, then I looked back at him. "Besides, I told Sakura I was bringing you back. I want us to walk through those village gates together. So I'll be around."

I reached for him, grabbing the back of his neck, and I pressed my forehead against his.

"Still friends?" I asked.

His eyes flicked back at Itachi who was walking along the ridge, attentively scouting the surrounding areas, and raised his hand to my hair, ruffling it slightly.

"More than friends..." He told me. "Brothers."

"Forever?"

"That's right."

I smiled.

"Sasuke!" Itachi called. "We need to leave."

Sasuke turned to him, nodded at me once last time, and jumped off the ridge, following after him.

I walked back to where Ero-Senin stood with Karin scolding him for being a creeper and poked her.

"So what are you up to?" I asked her.

"Not staying with you guys, that's for sure." She said.

I shrugged.

"It's not like we won't see each other again, Ms. Uchiha."

"Shut-up." She muttered, turning and walking the opposite direction that Sasuke had ran off to.

"Remember what I told you." Ero-Senin said.

I raised my eyebrows, looking between them both confused as they exchanged meaningful glances.

"I will. And... Thanks... Perv-Man." She told him.

"That's Perv-Man sir, to you." He replied jokingly.

"Later, cuz!" I called.

She waved, jumping off the side and running.

"Well..." Ero-Senin said. "That's it."

"I promised Sasuke I wouldn't go home before him, so I'm staying with you until then." I spoke up.

"How do you just confirm something like that without asking an adult?!"

"I knew you wouldn't care!"

He looked at me with an irritated expression and then shrugged.

"Yeah, I don't really care." He said. "Come on... Let's go find you a new pair of clothes."

He stuck his hand out over my head, measuring me.

"You actually happened to get a bit taller through this little adventure."

"Really?!" I exclaimed.

"Well, it makes sense, you're almost fourteen now, right?"

I rested my hands on my head and slid down the grassy terrain after him.

_Heh. Right... Can you believe it's been that long since we left Konoha?_

"_Surprisingly, yes."_

When I closed my eyes, I could see through Sasuke eyes, and from there, even though he wasn't smiling on the outside, I felt that he was happy.

"I want to you a lot of questions. Firstly... What does it mean to belong to a clan? And... Does that make that clan more important than those outside of it?"

"If you're asking me if Naruto is any less your brother than I am, then no. Things like clans, they're important only in name. Though, sometimes when you're lost, it is comforting to find people that resemble you. If you're not lost, however, everyone resembles you."

"And...what's love, then?" Sasuke asked him. "What does it mean to love someone?"

"In my case, it means you'll do anything to protect them. Like with my relationship with you."

Sasuke turned away from him.

"...The ones who really care are the ones who tell the truth." He said quietly.

"I guess you'll be teaching me as much as I'll be teaching you, then." Itachi said.

And Sasuke turned and was surprised to see him smiling.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing." He said. "I just never thought I'd find my life ending similarly to the way it started. With people who resemble me..."

He looked up at the sky, with it shinning off of his black locks.

"You don't have to forgive me, Sasuke." He told him. "But that doesn't change the fact that I really cared for you."

Sasuke remained silent, walking after him. I was pretty sure he wasn't going to say anything at all until he sighed, nudging his older brother.

"Depending on how you act from now on, I might consider forgiving you..."

_It's just like you to act like you're the older brother, Sasuke._

"_That's the only way I'll get him to stop talking to me like I'm an infant."_

Itachi looked down at him, giving him a genuinely surprised look, then he smiled.

"It's a deal." Itachi promised him.

_Hey, Sasuke?_

"_What, Usuratonkachi?"_

_Will everything be alright now?_

"_Probably not... But that's fine. As long as things are messed up, we'll make them better."_

_Together?_

"_That's right."_

**THE END **

Thank You SO MUCH for reading! If you're wondering what I'm writing next that's... A collection of old scrapped NarutoxSasuke's that I'm revamping and I still want to write an "ending" for NarutoxSakura but I'm currently waiting for more material from the manga. Lol. Stay Tuned. In the meantime, don't be afraid to check out my others!


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